Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On April 22, 2020, QatarEnergy reserved a significant amount of Hudong-Zhonghua's LNG tanker construction capacity through 2027 in a QAR 11 billion (~$3.02 billion) deal. Then, on October 3, 2021, Qatari state-owned QatarEnergy, under its former name Qatar Petroleum, placed an EUR 672 million order with the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) to build 4 new LNG tankers through Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group Co., CSSC's a wholly-owned subsidiary. On April 10, 2022, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) announced that through a subsidiary it signed a long-term charter contract for the four LNG carriers. According to China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure), the project was financed by a bank syndicate led by the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank) (#98808) and China Development Bank (CDB) (#98795). Sinosure insured about EUR 770 million of the financing, its first underwritten vessel structured financing project. These four LNG tankers were QatarEnergy's first orders using its reserved space in Hudong-Zhonghua's shipyard and are slated for delivery from 2024 through 2025. QatarEnergy could order an estimate of over 60 LNG tankers, according the contract.
Staff comments
1. This project is also known as the Export Project of Four LNG Vessels with a Total Carrying Capacity of 174,000 Cubic Meters. The Chinese project title is 卡塔尔石油——中国船舶LNG船建造项目 or 4艘174,000立方米LNG船舶出口项目. 2. The face value of the syndicated buyer’s credit loan is unknown. For the time being, AidData assumes that it is equivalent to 85% of the value of the EUR 672 million commercial contract (EUR 571.2 million). This issue warrants further investigation. 3. China Development Bank's estimated contribution (EUR 285.6 million) was derived by dividing the assumed value of the commercial contract (EUR 571.2 million) by the number of known lenders (2).