China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s Hudong-Zhonghua has started building another LNG carrier for compatriot shipowner Cosco and energy giant CNPC.
The yard held a steel cutting ceremony on January 22 for the 174,000 cbm vessel.
The vessel is the second of three ordered last year by the duo. Hudong kicked off work on the first vessel in this batch in October last year.
Following delivery in 2022 and 2023, all the vessels will transport LNG for CNPC’s Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina.
This represents the first LNG transportation project developed solely by Chinese companies including Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation, CNPC, and CSSC.
Cosco previously revealed that each of the 174,000-cbm LNG carriers has a price tag of about $185 million.
They will all feature WinGD X-DF dual-fuel engines and GTT’s N096 containment system.