State-run LNG giant QatarEnergy has signed a time charter and operation agreement with compatriot shipping firm Nakilat for nine 271,000-cbm LNG carriers.
The nine QC-Max vessels constitute half of the 18 advanced QC-Max class LNG vessels that will be constructed at China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard, QatarEnergy said on Wednesday.
With this, QatarEnergy confirmed a report by LNG Prime on March 28 saying that Nakilat will own nine of the giant LNG carriers as part of QatarEnergy’s massive shipbuilding program.
Prior to this, QatarEnergy also signed time charter agreements with Nakilat for 25 conventional-size LNG carriers and this deal puts the total to 34 vessels.
Including these vessels, Nakilat’s LNG carrier fleet will rise to 105 ships.
QatarEnergy recently signed a huge deal worth about $6 billion with Hudong-Zhonghua for the 18 giant vessels.
The firm says these are the largest LNG vessels ever built.
It also has signed long-term time charter party (TCP) agreements with three ship owners for the operation of nine QC-Max vessels.
The long-term TCP agreements cater for the operation of the vessels by affiliates of China Merchants Group, Shandong Marine Group, and China LNG Shipping (Holdings) Limited.
Moreover, CMES will operate four vessels, Shandong Marine Energy three, and CLNG two, QatarEnegy said.
Each of the world’s largest LNG vessels will be 344 meters long, 53.6 meters wide, and will have a draft of 12 meters.
Also, the vessels feature WinGD dual-fuel propulsion, a reliquefaction system, an air lubrication system, and GTT’s NO96 Super+ containment tech. The vessels have five storage tanks.
122 vessels
Including the QC-Max LNG carriers, QatarEnergy’s massive shipbuilding program includes the construction of 122 vessels.
QatarEnergy recently said it has completed the conventional sizes vessels portion of the shipbuilding program, bringing the total number of ships for which it signed time charter parties to 104 vessels.
South Korean yards and Hudong-Zhonghua will construct these 104 vessels.
Under the program, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries will build 34 174,000-cbm LNG carriers, Samsung Heavy will build 33 vessels, Hanwha Ocean will build 25 vessels, and Hudong-Zhonghua will construct 12 ships.
As per owners of the 174,000-cbm carriers, Nakilat will own 25 ships, a joint venture between H-Line Shipping, SK Shipping, and PanOcean 15 vessels, while J.P. Morgan’s Global Meridian will own 14 ships.
Moreover, a JV between NYK Line, K Line, MISC, and China LNG shipping will own 12 vessels, Knutsen 10 vessels, a JV between MOL and Cosco Energy 7 vessels, CMES and Shandong Marine will each own 6 vessels, a JV between K Line and Hyundai Glovis 4 vessels, MISC 3 vessels, and TMS Cardiff Gas 2 vessels.
The vessels will cater for QatarEnergy’s future requirements, as it moves forward with the expansion of its LNG production capacity from the North Field to 142 million tons per annum by 2030.
QatarEnergy expects to take delivery of the first new ship by the end of the third quarter of this year.