On April 29th, China State Shipbuilding Corporation and Qatar Energy Group held a signing ceremony in Beijing for the construction project of 18 of the world's largest 271,000-cubic-meter ultra-large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. This project set a record for the largest single shipbuilding order in the world.
This type of vessel was independently designed and constructed by Hudong-zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation. It has a total length of 344 meters, a beam of 53.6 meters, a depth of 27.2 meters, a designed draft of 12 meters, and adopts a dual-fuel low-speed engine propulsion system and the NO96 Super+ enclosure system. This type of vessel adopts a 5-cube configuration, has a compact size, and its cargo capacity is 57% higher than that of the conventional 174,000 cubic meter large LNG transport ship; it adopts a multi-objective optimized double stern fin profile, which has excellent speed performance; it is equipped with the latest generation cargo enclosure system, with a lower evaporation rate and a 9.9% lower energy consumption per ton-nautical mile for cargo transportation compared to the 174,000 cubic meter LNG transport ship; the liquid tanks adopt enhanced insulation modules, equipped with a real-time sway monitoring system, hull stress monitoring and collision prevention system, achieving multiple guarantees and better safety and reliability; it is equipped with a powerful re-liquefaction system and an axial propulsion reverse boost system, with flexible operation; and its carbon intensity index (CII) is 23% lower than that of the 174,000 cubic meter LNG transport ship, enabling flexible matching of various operational intervals on different routes; its diversified optimized draft and loading design enables this type of vessel to cover major mainstream routes and has excellent shore compatibility.
In 2020, Qatar Energy announced the highly anticipated "100-Ship Project", which involves building over 100 large LNG carriers to meet the transportation capacity requirements after the expansion of its upstream production. In April of the same year, China State Shipbuilding Corporation and Qatar Energy signed a strategic cooperation agreement, forming a comprehensive strategic partnership. In 2022, the China Shipbuilding Industry Trading Co., Ltd. under China State Shipbuilding Corporation, in conjunction with Hudong-zhonghua, signed an order for 12 174,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers under the "100-Ship Project" with the designated winning shipowner appointed by Qatar Energy. This time, obtaining the order for 18 of the world's largest 27.1 million-cubic-meter LNG carriers under the "100-Ship Project" is an important manifestation of the continuous improvement of China State Shipbuilding Corporation's international influence in the construction of ultra-large LNG carriers. It marks that China's LNG carrier research, design and construction have advanced from large-scale to ultra-large scale, and the high-end ship research and design capabilities have moved closer to the goal of being world-leading.
It is worth noting that the 99 LNG carriers under the "100-Ship Project" use the main engines authorized by China Shipbuilding Industry Group's WinGD, further demonstrating the continuous deepening of China Shipbuilding Industry Group's construction of the LNG carrier industrial chain and supply chain, and also promoting the strategic partnership between China State Shipbuilding Corporation and Qatar Energy to a new level, promoting more extensive cooperation in the energy field between China and Qatar, and building a long-term stable energy cooperation relationship.