QatarEnergy's decision to order 18 ultra-large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from China Shipbuilding Group is interesting because it has the attributes of "two firsts", on the one hand, it is the world's largest single shipbuilding order, with an amount of up to US$6 billion, and on the other hand, the LNG ship capacity of 271,000 cubic meters is also the largest in the world.
This is a large ship designed by Hudong-Zhonghua, the length of the hull alone has reached 344 meters, the width is 53.6 meters, and the depth is more than 27 meters. In fact, large LNG carriers and aircraft carriers, as well as large cruise ships, are the "three pearls" of the shipbuilding industry, and now these three pearls have been won by our research team and enterprises.
And now our "pearls" have even begun to be used for export. Qatar is actually a small rich country in the Gulf region, and a single order of $6 billion is just a single investment, which shows how rich Qatar is. Of course, Qatar also has to inspect the goods, and the 271,000 cubic meter LNG ship is unprecedented, which can make Qatar excited, indicating that the design plan of Chinese enterprises has been quite mature and excellent.
In fact, large LNG carriers are extremely difficult to build, mainly because they need to design "cold storage" at minus 163 degrees, which puts high technical requirements on them. Qatar has proposed the "100 Ships Plan" to boost the export of LNG. Qatar has ordered 12 ships with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters, and now it has added larger orders, which shows that Qatar also recognizes Chinese LNG carriers.