QatarEnergy seals a $6bn deal with China for the construction of 18 mega LNG vessels, marking the industry’s largest single shipbuilding contract.

QatarEnergy and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) inked a $6 billion deal on Monday for the construction of 18 QC-Max liquified natural gas vessels, the largest of their kind.

The signing took place in Beijing between Saad Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and Chen Jianliang, Chairman of Hudong‐Zhonghua Shipbuilding. 

Chairman of China Shipbuilding Trading, Li Hongtao, was also in attendance, according to a QatarEnergy statement.

Each of the vessels has a capacity of 271,000 cubic meters and will be constructed at China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard, a CSSC wholly-owned subsidiary.

Twelve conventional-size LNG ships are currently under construction at Hudong-Zhonghua and the first delivery is expected by the third quarter of this year.

Speaking at the ceremony, Al-Kaabi noted that the vessels are the largest of their kind.

“With a total value of almost 6 billion dollars for these ultra-modern, largest ever LNG vessels by size, the agreement we signed today is the industry’s largest single shipbuilding contract ever,” Al-Kaabi, who is also QatarEnergy’s President and CEO, said.

Eight of the 18 LNG vessels will be delivered in 2028 and 2029 whereas the remaining 10 will be delivered in 2030 and 2031.

“As we take this important step together, I would like to affirm QatarEnergy’s determination to live up to our commitment to provide a safe and reliable energy source in the form of LNG, while always giving priority to environmental sustainability,” Al-Kaabi added.

The latest deal comes after QatarEnergy signed a Time Charter Party agreement last month for 19 LNG vessels, bumping up its fleet expansion programme to 104 vessels.

Signed in Doha on March 31, the agreements are part of the second ship-owner tender under QatarEnergy’s historic LNG fleet expansion programme. A TCP stipulates that a shipowner leases a fully equipped and manned vessel for a fixed period to a charterer.

The vessels have a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters each.

QatarEnergy’s affiliate, QatarEnergy Trading, will charter 43 out of the total 104 ships, making it “the single largest one-step ship acquisition programme of any single entity in the history of the LNG industry.”

In 2022, the Qatari company concluded the first phase of its fleet expansion project by signing long-term TCPs for the charter and operation of 60 LNG ships.

The project aims to meet Qatar’s future requirements under its North Field Expansion Project and the Golden Pass LNG export projects.

The multi-billion North Field project comes under Qatar’s LNG endeavours and is split into the North Field East (NFE), North Field South (NFS), and North Field West.

NFE is set to ramp up Qatar’s LNG production from 77 to 110 mtpa by 2025, as the NFS will increase the production capacity from 110 to 126 mtpa by 2026.

On February 25, QatarEnergy announced a new LNG expansion project, North Field West. The expansion would boost the local LNG production to 142 mtpa before the end of 2030.

Meanwhile, Golden Pass LNG has a production capacity of at least 18 million tonnes per annum and is set to begin its first production by the end of 2024.

In October 2022, QatarEnergy Trading and ExxonMobil signed an agreement stipulating the former would “independently offtake and market their respective proportionate equity shares” of LNG in the U.S. project.

In 2016, affiliates of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil established a joint venture Ocean LNG Limited to offtake and market the production at the Texas gas entity.