Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) has won orders for 10 large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers worth a total of 2,869 billion won. The latest deal boosts the shipbuilder’s order intake this year to 34 LNG carriers, the largest number in the world.

KSOE announced on July 7 that it signed contracts with European and Oceanian shipping companies to build a total of 10 174,000 cubic meter LNG carriers. Each vessel is 299 meters long, 46.4 meters wide and 26.5 meters tall. Eight ships ordered by a European shipping company will be built at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan and two ships ordered by an Oceania shipping company at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in Yeongam, South Jeolla Province. They will be delivered sequentially by the second half of 2026.

KSOE did not say whether these contracts are part of Qatar’s LNG carrier project. However, some industry insiders say that the orders are known to be part of the Qatar project. QatarEnergy, formerly Qatar Petroleum, reserved more than 100 shipbuilding slots at three big Korean shipbuilders — KSOE, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) — in June 2020.

On June 6, KSOE announced that the contracts for three LNG carriers signed in January and July 2021 were canceled and then renewed, with the contract amount raised by 322.7 billion won from 619.6 billion won to 942.3 billion won. The ships will be built at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, and delivered to clients in August 2023 and August 2024, respectively.

Source: BusinessKorea