Qatar signs deals for more ships ahead of massive LNG expansion

QATARENERGY has signed four agreements to charter 19 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from Asian ship operators as it prepares to ramp up output.

The move was announced by QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi on Sunday (Mar 31). In a ceremony at its Doha headquarters, the state-owned company signed contracts to charter six vessels from China’s CMES LNG Carrier Investment, six vessels from another Chinese company, Shandong Marine Energy, and three vessels from Malaysia’s MISC.

Those 15 vessels will be built at South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries, QatarEnergy said.

An additional four vessels will be operated by a joint venture of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and Hyundai Glovis, and are being built by South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean shipbuilders.

The agreements signed on Sunday bring the total number of ships QatarEnergy has contracted to 104, the company said, 43 of which will be chartered by affiliate QatarEnergy Trading.

The 19 new LNG vessels announced on Sunday will each have a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres, QatarEnergy said.

Qatar needs more LNG carriers as it is raising its annual production capacity from the North Field to 142 million tonnes by 2030 from 77 million tonnes currently.

In doing so, the small Middle Eastern nation is set to re-establish its dominance of the global LNG market.

Projects in Australia and the US have eroded its supremacy in recent years, to the point where all three countries export roughly the same. However, the US recently imposed a temporary freeze on permits for new projects and Qatar’s investments in its new facilities has put it on course to take the lead again.

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QatarEnergy signed another charter deal for 25 LNG carriers from Qatar Gas Transport Company, also known as Nakilat, earlier this month. In addition to chartering vessels, it owns a fleet of LNG carriers. In 2020, it signed landmark deals worth US$22 billion with South Korean and Chinese shipbuilders.