Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation has announced that the board has approved a plan to order three 174,000 cu m LNG carriers at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding to support a joint venture shipping project with PetroChina.
Cosco plans to set up a joint venture with Hong Kong-based Glasford Shipping, an affiliate of PetroChina, to operate the ships. Two Cosco subsidiaries will hold a total of 81% equity interest in the joint venture while Glasford Shipping will hold the remaining 19%.
The vessels will be deployed for LNG shipping services for affiliate companies of PetroChina.
The price for each vessel is $185m and Cosco will invest $600m in total for the vessels including financing costs.
It is the second large LNG carrier order Hudong-Zhonghua has secured in the past week. The shipyard has been awarded a massive $2.8bn LNG carrier newbuilding contract by Qatar Petroleum last week for up to 16 ships of the same design Cosco has selected.
