Qatar to Buy Up to 60 New LNG Vessels

Qatar Petroleum (QP) is expected to order 60 new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers to serve new customers once it ramps up its annual capacity from the current 77 million tonnes (mt) to 110 mt after building four liquefaction trains by 2024.

A report in Gulf Times quoted the Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, who is also president and CEO of QP saying that the state-run oil company has a team, which is in talks with different ship builders worldwide.

“It should be between 50 and 60 vessels that we will require to transport the expanded output of LNG. It will be very substantial number, but things will become clear with time,” he said.

He added: “We have a dedicated team of experts who are already working on that element (to acquiring vessels). They have visited different shipbuilders around the world. There will be international tenders put in place to procure the ships. Everything is going ahead as per the plan.

Asked if Qatar is considering building LNG carriers in the country itself, he said, “We have no such plans as it would be very expensive to build such vessels in the country. We will get them manufactured outside the country.”

He said that Nakilat has a large and well-equipped shipyard in Ras Laffan Industrial City and has built a number of vessels with its partners, taking advantage of its expertise and low cost of raw materials and manpower, but the building of LNG carriers needs different expertise, which makes QP mostly geared towards South Korea that has proven its expertise in this field.

This is for the second time that he noted that QP is looking to South Korea and other countries for its ship building needs.