A joint venture consisting of Chinese shipowner Cosco and energy giant CNPC is to order three LNG carriers at Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding.
The price for each of the 174,000-cbm LNG carriers is $185 million, according to Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation.
Following delivery, the vessels will transport LNG for CNPC’s Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina.
Cosco unit Cosco Shanghai will have a 60 percent stake in the joint venture. Cosco Oil Shipping, the newly-formed joint venture between Cosco and CNPC, will take a 21 percent share.
PetroChina subsidiary Jiafu Shipping will have the remaining 19 percent of equity in the joint venture.
Cosco’s LNG tanker fleet consists of 36 vessels out of which 30 ships are jointly owned.
Worth mentioning here, this is the second LNG carrier order for Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding in the last seven days following the big announcement by Qatar Petroleum.
The deal potentially worth more than 11 billion Qatari riyals ($3 billion) involves up to sixteen 174,000-cbm LNG carriers.