Qatar orders 4 LNG tankers worth $760m from China

State-owned Qatar Petroleum has ordered four new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers worth $760 million from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group Co., a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Corp

Qatar Petroleum said in a statement that the four ships are the first batch of bookings for the company’s North Field expansion project, which will see it spend almost $30 billion to increase its production capacity by more than 50 per cent.

Qatar Energy Minister and Qatar Petroleum CEO, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said: “We are progressing steadily in projects to increase our production of LNG, and today’s announcement is another big step in this context.”

“I am particularly pleased to sign this request because it will be the first time that Qatari LNG tankers are being built in the People’s Republic of China,” he added.

The North Field expansion project will raise Qatar’s production capacity of LNG from 77 million tonnes per year to 126 million tonnes per year.

The announcement comes days after it was revealed that QP reached an agreement to supply 3.5 million metric tonnes of LNG a year to China for a period of 15 years starting in January 2022.

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