China’s Dalian Shipbuilding Industry (DSIC) will build three LNG carriers for a joint venture consisting of units of Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation and Sinopec, according to shipbuilding sources.
DSIC will construct the vessels for CESI, the Hong Kong-based JV in which Sinopec’s unit Kantons Investment holds a 49 percent stake and Shanghai Cosco Shipping LNG holds a 51 percent share.
Sinopec Kantons said in a statement that CESI intends to invest in the construction of three 175,000-cbm LNG carriers, while the total investment will reach about $760.8 million.
About 74.4 percent of the funds will be raised through project financing and the rest through capital injection from the two partners.
Vessels to transport US LNG volumes
Following delivery, the vessels will serve Sinopec under long-term charters deals to ship US LNG volumes Sinopec contracted from Venture Global LNG in November 2021.
Under the 20-year sales and purchase agreements, Venture Global will supply of a total of 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG from its Plaquemines LNG export facility in Louisiana to Sinopec.
“In order to meet the annual transportation demand of 2.8 million tonnes of LNG FOB cargoes in the above project, Sinopec Corp. has made additional demand to CESI for the LNG vessels,” the statement said.
Sinopec Kantons did not reveal the name of the yard or any additional information regarding the vessels.
Shipbuilding sources told LNG Prime that DSIC will construct these three 175,000-cbm LNG carriers.
Moreover, the vessels will feature WinGD dual-fuel engines and GTT’s Mark III Flex membrane containment system, according to the sources.
DSIC is expected to deliver two LNG carriers in 2027 and one vessel in 2028, the sources said.
DSIC’s LNG carrier orders rising
This announcement took a while as shipbuilding sources told this publication last year that DSIC would build three LNG carriers for Sinopec charter.
DSIC won its first large LNG carrier order for two ships from CMES in March 2022 and after that CMES added six more vessels.
Also, DSIC recently signed a deal to build two LNG carriers for a joint venture consisting of China Gas, Wah Kwong Maritime Transport, and CSSC Shipping.
Including these three new vessels, DSIC will have 13 LNG carriers on order.
