Qatar Energy Minister and QatarEnergy Chief Executive Saad bin Sharia al-Kaabi signed the agreement on Monday with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) in Beijing, the Chinese capital.
Under the agreement, CSSC will manufacture the 18 QC-Max-type LNG carriers with a holding LNG capacity of 271,000 cubic meters at the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard.
The ships, with a 344-meter length, a width of 53.5 meters, and a 27.2-meter height, will be delivered between 2028 and 2031.
The new agreement follows an earlier deal made between Qatar and China. Under this agreement, 12 LNG vessels are in production at the shipyard, and the first of these ships is scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of this year.
QatarEnergy has also signed long-term time charter party (TCP) agreements on April 1 with four international shipowners to operate 19 new, ultra-modern conventional-sized LNG vessels as part of the second ship-owner tender under QatarEnergy’s historic LNG fleet expansion program.
(Anadolu Agency, April 30, 2024)