South Korea in pole to win up to 60 LNG carriers from Qatar

Qatar is readying another mammoth round of LNG carrier orders with South Korean yards in pole position.

Qatar’s energy minister has outlined plans to order 60 new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

The energy minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, also serves as deputy chairman of Qatar Petroleum. Qatar Petroleum has recently toured yards in China, Japan and South Korea ahead of proceeding with this giant order for large LNG carriers. Qatar is after more 210,000 cu m Q-Flexes and 266,000 cu m Q-Maxes.

The last time it ordered such a volume of ships – between 2004 and 2007 – South Korea’s big three yards won all the contracts. Analysts put the price tag of 60 new large LNG carriers at $12bn.