Qatar Gas Transport Co. (Nakilat) this week held a steel cutting ceremony for eight of its new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers at Hanwha Ocean shipyard – formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering – in South Korea.

The vessels are part of Qatar’s LNG fleet expansion programme, designed to support QatarEnergy’s ongoing development of its world scale gas resource.

Nakilat CEO Abdullah Al-Sulaiti said: “We are proud to collaborate with QatarEnergy and Hanwha Ocean. The start of construction marks a significant milestone that reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting Qatar’s vision for LNG transportation through a world-class fleet.”

In February last year, QatarEnergy and Nakilat signed agreements for the operation of 25 LNG vessels.

The time-charter party (TCP) agreements, signed by Sulaiti and HE Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy’s president and CEO, outline the operation and construction of the vessels, set to bolster Qatar’s LNG shipping capabilities.

Under the deal, 17 vessels will be constructed at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in South Korea, with the remaining eight at Hanwha Ocean’s facility. Each vessel, boasting a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres, will be chartered to QatarEnergy affiliates for 15 years, underscoring the scale and longevity of this project.

Al-Kaabi expressed confidence in Nakilat’s operational excellence and highlighted the agreement’s critical role in fulfilling QatarEnergy’s strategic vision.

“This is a testament to Nakilat’s world-class capabilities as well as to the significant contributions of Qatari listed companies to our country’s national economy,” Al-Kaabi remarked. He further emphasised the initiative’s significance in catering to the expansion of Qatar’s LNG production capacity, aiming for a staggering 142mn tonnes per year (tpy) by 2030.

QatarEnergy previously selected Nakilat to own and operate up to 25 conventional-size LNG carriers under TCPs, the second batch of long-term TCPs as part of the fleet expansion programme.

The fleet expansion comes as QatarEnergy ramps up LNG export capacity, with that effort given a major boost in February when the company announced the discovery of an additional 240 trillion cubic feet (6.8 trillion cubic metres) of gas and 10bn barrels of condensate reserves at its supergiant North Field asset.