[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Korean shipbuilding companies have secured a large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier project in Qatar.
Qatar Petroleum (QP), the state-owned oil company of Qatar, announced on its website on the 1st that it has signed agreements related to LNG carriers with Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
This contract secures a significant portion of the LNG carrier building slots at these three shipbuilders for QP until 2027.
In large-scale projects, it is common to secure shipbuilding slots before formal orders are placed.
QP stated that it requires more than 100 LNG carriers by 2027 and has secured about 60% of the global LNG carrier production capacity for this purpose.
QP said the scale of this project exceeds 70 billion Qatari riyals (approximately 23.6 trillion KRW).
The signing ceremony held via video conference was attended by Saad Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of Energy and CEO of QP; Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea; Lee Sung-geun, President of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering; Ga Sam-hyun, President of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering; and Nam Jun-woo, President of Samsung Heavy Industries.
Qatar has attracted great interest in the shipbuilding industry by promoting the world’s largest LNG project.
As the world’s largest LNG producer, Qatar plans to expand its annual LNG production from the current 77 million tons to 126 million tons by 2027 and is pushing forward with expansion projects. The increase in LNG production will lead to large-scale orders for carriers.
Although there were concerns that the project might be delayed due to recent oil price declines, Qatar proceeded as planned.
The signal for the smooth progress of the Qatar project was the contract signed in April with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
QP signed a contract to secure shipbuilding slots for large LNG carriers worth 20 billion yuan (approximately 3.5 trillion KRW).
The contract is structured as "8 ships to be built + 8 ship options," totaling 16 ships. The delivery period is scheduled for 2024 and 2025.
An industry insider said, "The contract with CSSC, which has Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding as a subsidiary, is known to have been made on the condition that China purchases Qatar gas," adding, "As expected, domestic companies secured most of the volume in the competitive bidding."
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