The market requires up to 95 additional liquefied natural gas carriers to ship contracted volumes of LNG from plants under construction, according to GTT’s chief Philippe Berterottière.
Berterottière said during GTT’s 2023 results presentation on Tuesday that these estimates do not include the most recent announcement by QatarEnergy regarding a third LNG expansion of the giant North Field with a capacity of 16 mtpa.
The projects with start up dates scheduled from 2024 to 2028 include the Golden Pass LNG project, the Rio Grande LNG project, QatarEnergy’s NFE LNG project, the Plaquemines LNG project, and others.
Berterottière said there are three drivers of LNG fleet replacement and these are ageing fleet, economics, and environment.
These will lead to an acceleration in vessels’ scrapping and to new orders for LNG carriers.
Berterottière told LNG Prime in November last year the LNG containment giant expects that there will be more than 450 orders for large LNG carriers over the next ten years.
He confirmed this estimate on Tuesday saying that GTT also expects there will be up to 10 orders for FSRUs, up to 10 order for FLNGs, and between 25 and 40 VLEC orders over 2024-2033.
Berterottière also said that GTT expects there will be orders for in total 18 Q-Max type LNG carriers.
GTT already secured a large tank design order for eight new very large LNG carriers tied to the massive QatarEnergy shipbuilding program.
LNG Prime recently reported that QatarEnergy is looking to order up to ten more Q-Max LNG carriers in China.
GTT received orders for 73 LNG carriers and one FLNG in 2023, while its revenues 39.2 percent to 428 million euros ($464 million) in 2023.