Qatar Petroleum initiates huge LNG carrier order

The shipbuilding campaign has the “potential to exceed 100 new LNG carriers over the next decade,” Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs said.

   Qatar Petroleum announced Monday it initiated an LNG ship construction program that has the “potential to exceed 100 new LNG carriers over the next decade,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs and president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum.
   The shipbuilding campaign is expected to initially deliver 60 LNG carriers in support of the planned production expansion, he said in a statement. The North Field Expansion Project is expected to increase the Qatar’s LNG production capacity to 110 million tons per year beginning in 2024.
   The tender also covers shipping requirements for the LNG volumes that will be purchased and offtaken by Ocean LNG, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, from the Golden Pass LNG export project. The Golden Pass export facility, located in Sabine Pass, Texas, is expected to begin operations in 2024 and will have a production capacity of about 16 million tons of LNG a year, Qatar Petroleum said in February.
   The tender also includes replacement requirements for Qatar’s existing LNG fleet. 
   “This tender, along with the recently released Engineering, Procurement and Construction tender for four new mega LNG trains planned as part of the North Field Expansion Project, constitute two monumental and historical milestones as we make major strides in our commitment towards the further development of the world’s largest nonassociated gas field,” Al-Kaabi said in the statement.
   Qatargas will execute the shipbuilding program on Qatar Petroleum’s behalf, the state-owned gas and oil company said in the statement.