Hanwha Ocean announced on March 25 that it has secured a deal to construct eight liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from a shipowner based in the Oceania region. The contract is valued at 2.44 trillion won (US$1.82 billion). The company intends to build the vessels at its Geoje shipyard and aims to deliver them by the end of January 2028.
The agreement covers a portion of the 12 LNG carriers, for which Hanwha Ocean entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for construction with a shipowner in the Middle East region on Feb. 29. The firm is currently reviewing the contract details with a different shipowner for the remaining four vessels.
While Hanwha Ocean has not disclosed the specific counterpart in the contract, it is speculated that the contracting party is QatarEnergy, a state-owned energy company of Qatar. The Qatari government is pursuing a project to increase annual LNG production from the current 77 million tons to 126 million tons by 2027. This expansion project is expected to lead to an increase in orders for LNG carriers to transport the produced quantities worldwide.
Out of the total of 65 LNG carriers ordered for the initial Qatar project, three domestic shipbuilders -- HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), Samsung Heavy Industries, and Hanwha Ocean -- have secured contracts for 54 vessels.
Last year, HD KSOE secured contracts for 17 vessels valued at approximately 5.25 trillion won, making it the largest single contract in the history of the domestic shipbuilding industry. Similarly, Samsung Heavy Industries won contracts for 15 vessels totaling 4.57 trillion won. If Hanwha Ocean successfully secures all four remaining vessels, the three shipbuilders will indeed have secured a total of 44 vessels for the second phase of the project.