Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua has held a keel-laying ceremony for the third LNG vessel it is building for compatriot shipowner COSCO and energy giant CNPC.
The yard held the ceremony for the 174,000-cbm LNG tanker with a working name H1833A on Monday. It is the third and last ordered in June 2020 by the duo.
Hudong has recently launched the first LNG carrier in this batch.
Following delivery in 2022 and 2023, all of the three carriers will transport LNG for CNPC’s Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina.
They should ship volumes from Cheniere’s Corpus Christi plant in the US to China.
The PCI project represents the first LNG transportation project developed solely by Chinese companies including COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation, CNPC and Hudong.
All of the vessels will feature WinGD X-DF dual-fuel engines and GTT’s NO96 L03+ containment system.
In addition to these ships, the two partners and Hudong signed a deal earlier this year for three new 174,000-cbm sister LNG carriers.
These carriers are options from the original order the three firms signed last year.
