South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has officially started building Nakilat’s first of 17 LNG carriers as part of an order placed last year.
The shipbuilder recently held the steel-cutting ceremony for the LNG carrier (Hull No. 3476), according to Nakilat.
Nakilat said this marks the construction start of 17 LNG carriers at HD Hyundai Heavy under the massive QatarEnergy shipbuilding program.
Last year, state-run LNG giant QatarEnergy signed time charter agreements with Nakilat for 25 conventional-size LNG carriers as part of the second phase of its shipbuidling program.
The remaining eight vessels are being constructed at South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
In March, Hanwha Ocean started building Nakilat’s first of eight LNG carriers.
In addition to these 174,000-cbm vessels, QatarEnergy also signed a time charter and operation agreement with Nakilat for nine 271,000-cbm LNG carriers.
The nine QC-Max vessels will be constructed at China’s Hudong-Zhonghua.
Nakilat has 36 LNG carriers and four LPG/ammonia carriers on order.
The total vessel count in the company’s fleet will reach 114 once all the vessels are delivered, including 105 LNG carriers.
