Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua has held a keel-laying ceremony for the second 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 H1832A on Friday.
The vessel is the second of three ordered last year by the duo. Hudong has earlier this year laid the keel for the first vessel 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.
Also, the vessels 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.
COSCO previously said each of the three LNG carriers has a price tag of about $185 million.
They will all feature WinGD X-DF dual-fuel engines and GTT’s NO96 L03+ containment system.
In addition, the two partners and Hudong recently signed a deal for three 174,000-cbm sister LNG carriers.
These new carriers are options from the original order the three firms signed in June last year.