QatarEnergy, the State-owned petroleum company, has signed agreements with international companies to operate 19 Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) vessels.
QatarEnergy’s CEO Saad Al Kaabi announced that the company has finalized a number of charter contracts with several Asian ship owners to bolster its shipping fleet ahead of a massive expansion in LNG output.
In a ceremony at its Doha headquarters, QatarEnergy signed contracts to charter six vessels from China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) LNG Carrier Investment, six vessels from China’s Shandong Marine Energy, three vessels from Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad (MISC Berhad) and four vessels from Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, a Japanese transportation company, and Hyundai Glovis, a logistics company based in South Korea.
The energy company had previously contracted for 77 ships to be built at Korean and Chinese shipyards in the first phases of its LNG ship acquisition program. QatarEnergy’s North Field expansion will boost its position as the world’s top LNG exporter.
It includes eight LNG trains that will ramp up Qatar’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million tons per annum (mtpa) to 142 mtpa by 2030, an 85 percent increase in production.
QatarEnergy continues to work to implement various elements of the North Field production expansion projects, including the North Field East project and the North Field South project.
Recently, QatarEnergy signed time-charter party (TCP) agreements with Qatar Gas Transport Company Limited (Nakilat) for the operation of 25 conventional-size LNG vessels as part of the second ship-owner tender under QatarEnergy’s historic LNG Fleet Expansion Program.
