Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries will build two new LNG carriers as part of a deal revealed on Wednesday, according to its parent Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.
KSOE said that the deal has a price tag of about 534.7 billion won ($447.3 million) or some $223.5 million per vessel, which is a very high price.
HSHI will deliver the 174,000-cbm LNG carriers by February 2025 to an unidentified African shipowner.
KSOE did not reveal any additional information.
One shipbuilding source told LNG Prime that Nigeria LNG, the operator of the 22 mtpa Bonny Island plant, is involved in this deal but they did not order the vessels directly.
Another company ordered the vessels, according to the source.
Nigeria LNG is a venture compromising of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell (25.6%), Total (15%) and Eni (10.4%). The venture started building the seventh train last year to add around 8 mtpa of production capacity to the Bonny Island facility.
On the other side, these two LNG carrier orders follow several contracts KSOE announced since the beginning of this year, including for LNG carriers, LNG-powered containerships, and one LNG bunkering vessel.
In total, KSOE and its units won orders for a total of 26 ships worth about $4.16 billion.
KSOE has set a target for this year of $17.4 billion, compared to $14.9 billion last year. The shipbuilder secured in total $22.8 billion worth of orders during 2021.
(This article was updated on February 10 to say that Nigeria LNG could be involved in the order for the two LNG carriers.)