South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) said Tuesday it has clinched a 1.07 trillion-won (US$850 million) order to build four liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers under a deal with a South Korean consortium.
DSME, the world's No. 4 shipbuilder by order backlog, said it will build the 174,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers in the Okpo shipyard on the south coast and deliver them by the first half of 2025.
The South Korean consortium, which is composed of Pan Ocean Co., SK Shipping Co. and H-Line Shipping Co., will deliver LNG for Qatar Energy, Qatar's state-owned oil and gas company that was previously called Qatar Petroleum, according to a DSME official.
The order is the first result of a $19 billion contract that DSME and two other Korean shipbuilding giants -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. -- signed with Qatar Petroleum in June 2020 to construct more than 100 LNG vessels through 2027.
The preliminary pact, an arrangement that precedes a major shipbuilding order, allows the Qatari company to secure so-called construction slots from the South Korean shipyards.
The contract is in line with Qatar's plan to boost its LNG production capacity to 126 million tons by 2027 from the current 77 million tons. Qatar is the world's top LNG producer.
DSME's order is widely expected to lead to the securing of more orders for LNG carriers by the three major shipbuilders for the Qatari project down the road.