Samsung Heavy to build biggest LNG carrier

Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world’s second-largest shipyard, will start building the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas carrier for an Exxon Mobil Corp. project in Qatar.
Samsung will cut steel for a 266,000 cubic-meter LNG tanker, twice the size of a typical carrier, on Geoje Island in Korea and deliver the vessel by August 2008, said Robert Tustin, technical manager at Lloyd’s Register Asia. Lloyd’s Register inspects and certifies ships.
There are 45 LNG tankers of 200,000 cubic-meter capacity on order at Korean shipyards for Qatari gas projects, Tustin said. These orders include tankers of 209,000 cubic meters in size, known as the Q-flex, and 266,000, or Q-max, said Tustin, who has spent 23 years in the shipping industry. Each Q-max carrier costs about $300 million, he said.
Oil companies plan to spend a record $292 billion this year on oil and gas exploration, production and refining as demand for fuel increases, according to analysts at Lehman Brothers Holdings. That’s increased the need for vessels and helped yards in Korea, the world’s biggest shipbuilding nation, to grab almost half of last year’s global orders for new ships. Qatar booked space in bulk at Korean shipyards to build tankers for all its LNG production, in order to cut costs and get delivery of the ships on schedule. Samsung Heavy has a backlog of 43 LNG carriers. Samsung Heavy has received $3.6 billion in orders this year and is aiming for $10 to $11 billion for the year. It has a backlog valued at $26 billion, representing about three years of work.