Qatar Petroleum initiates LNG ship construction program for 100+ new LNG carriers
Qatar Petroleum issued an ‘invitation to tender’ for the reservation of ship construction capacity required for the LNG carrier fleet for its North Field Expansion (NFE) Project, which will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (mta) to 110 mta starting in 2024.
In addition to addressing shipping requirements for the North Field Expansion Project, the tender covers shipping requirements for the LNG volumes that will be purchased and offtaken by Ocean LNG (a 70%/30% joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil) from the Golden Pass LNG export project in the United States, which is currently under construction and is planned to start by 2024. The tender also includes options for replacement requirements for Qatar’s existing LNG fleet.
Qatar Petroleum has entrusted Qatargas to execute this LNG ship building program on its behalf. As the World’s Premier LNG Company, Qatargas has an established history of safely and successfully delivering such major projects. This includes the previous campaign that resulted in the construction of 45 Q-Flex and Q-Max ships, the world’s largest LNG carriers, which constitute the backbone of Qatar’s LNG carrier fleet today.
