"QatarEnergy signed an agreement with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) for the construction of 18 ultra-modern QC-Max size LNG vessels, marking a significant addition to its historic LNG fleet expansion program," the company said in a statement.
The vessels will be built at China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard, a CSSC wholly-owned subsidiary, and have a capacity of 271,000 cubic meters each.
"With a total value of almost 6 billion dollars for these ultra-modern, largest ever LNG vessels by size, the agreement we signed today is the industry's largest single shipbuilding contract ever," Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Qatari Energy Minister and QatarEnergy CEO, said in the statement.
Eight LNG carriers are expected to be delivered in 2028 and 2029, and the other 10 in 2030 and 2031, the energy company said.
Qatar exported nearly 17 million tonnes of LNG to China in 2023.