North Field Expansion: QatarEnergy Orders Six LNG Carriers from S. Korean Shipyards
Qatar's state-run energy firm QatarEnergy, until recently known as Qatar Petroleum, has ordered six LNG tankers, four from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and two from Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in support of its North Field expansion project.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, said: “We are pleased to take this further step with DSME and SHI, which have built 23 Q-Flex and 14 Q-Max LNG vessels for Qatar as part of our previous LNG expansion project.”
Al-Kaabi further said: These orders, and those that will follow in the near future, constitute a significant part of our program to expand Qatar’s LNG fleet to meet the requirements of our LNG expansion projects, our existing fleet replacement, as well as our LNG trading arm.”
He added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the management and working teams from DSME, SHI, QatarEnergy and Qatargas, whose dedicated efforts were instrumental in the realization of this milestone.”
The North Field expansion projects will increase Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum to 126 million tons per annum by 2027. The North Field is the world’s single largest non-associated offshore natural gas field.
QatarEnergy has said that its LNG carrier fleet program is the largest of its kind in the LNG industry and is designed to meet the shipping requirements of QatarEnergy’s LNG expansion projects, as well as replace part of Qatar's existing LNG fleet.
