Qatar Petroleum has issued an invitation to tender (ITT) for the chartering of LNG carriers for its future LNG shipping requirements including its ongoing expansion projects in the North Field, which will raise Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum today to 126 million tons per annum by 2027.
The ITT package, which was issued to a large group of LNG shipowners, aims to select shipowners for the long-term time charter of LNG carriers to satisfy the future requirements of Qatar Petroleum and its subsidiaries.
In addition to supporting the North Field Expansion Project, the ITT package also covers the requirements for the LNG volumes that will be produced from the Golden Pass LNG export project in the United States. Furthermore, the ITT includes options to replace time charters for a number of Qatar's LNG carriers that will expire in the next few years.
Upon receiving the responses to the ITT, Qatar Petroleum will review bidders' technical and commercial capabilities with the objective of assigning selected shipowners to the shipyards' construction slots, which were previously reserved at a number of Chinese and South Korean shipyards.
Qatar Petroleum has entrusted Qatargas with the management of the shipowner selection program.