QatarEnergy expands LNG fleet with deals for 19 new vessels

Doha, Qatar: QatarEnergy has signed long term time charter party (TCP) agreements with four international shipowners for the operation of 19 ultra mod...

Doha, Qatar: QatarEnergy has signed long-term time charter party (TCP) agreements with four international shipowners for the operation of 19 ultra-modern conventional-size LNG vessels, which comes as part of the second ship-owner tender under the organisation’s historic LNG fleet expansion programme.

The signing ceremony, which took place yesterday at QatarEnergy's headquarters in Doha was attended by Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, H E Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi along with other officials including the President and CEO of CMES LNG Carrier Investment, Wang Yongxin; Chairman of Shandong Marine Energy, Li Maozhong; Managing Executive Officer of K Line, Satoshi Kanamori; Vice-President of Hyundai Glovis, Jungsuk Kim; and President and CEO of MISC Berhad, Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam.

The event witnessed agreements catering for the operation of six vessels by CMES LNG Carrier Investment Inc., six vessels by Shandong Marine Energy (Singapore) Pte Ltd., and three vessels by MISC Berhad; all of which are being constructed at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea. The remaining four vessels will be operated by a joint venture of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line) and Hyundai Glovis Co. Ltd. and are being constructed at Hanwha Ocean (formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) in South Korea.

Speaking on the occasion, Al Kaabi said: “Today’s signings form a significant milestone in QatarEnergy’s LNG fleet expansion programme, as it marks the conclusion of the conventional sizes vessels portion of the programme, bringing the total number of ships for which we have signed TCPs to 104 vessels, a massive undertaking that is the largest shipbuilding and leasing programme ever in the history of the industry. These ships will support our expanded LNG production capacity from the North Field in Qatar and Golden Pass in the US, while also meeting our long-term fleet replacement requirements. The careful shipowner selection process followed a detailed and rigorous global tender, signifying QatarEnergy’s commitment to expanding its fleet of modern LNG carriers in collaboration with world-class shipowners and in an open and transparent manner.”

QatarEnergy has entered into a series of TCP agreements since 2022 for the long-term charter and operation of 104 conventional LNG vessels.