Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua has held a keel-laying ceremony for the first LNG carrier it is building for compatriot shipowner COSCO and energy giant CNPC.
The yard held the ceremony for the 174,000-cbm LNG tanker on Friday.
The vessel is the first of three ordered last year by the duo. Hudong kicked off work on this vessel in October 2020, followed by the second in January this year, and the third in March.
Following delivery in 2022 and 2023, all the vessels will transport LNG for CNPC’s Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina.
The carriers should ship volumes from Cheniere’s Corpus Christi plant in the US to China.
The PCI project represents the first LNG transportation project developed solely by Chinese companies including COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation, CNPC and Hudong.
COSCO previously said each of the three LNG carriers has a price tag of about $185 million.
They will all feature WinGD X-DF dual-fuel engines and GTT’s NO96 L03+ containment system.
