A liquefied natural gas carrier built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering / Courtesy of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) said Tuesday it has clinched a 1.07 trillion won ($850 million) order to build four liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers under a deal with a Qatari state oil firm.

DSME, the world's No. 4 shipbuilder by order backlog, said it will build the 174,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers in its Okpo shipyard on the south coast and deliver them by the first half of 2025.

The order is the first result of a $19 billion contract that DSME and two other Korean shipbuilding giants ― Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries ― signed with Qatar Petroleum in June 2020 to construct more than 100 LNG vessels through 2027.

The preliminary pact, an arrangement that precedes a major shipbuilding order, allows the Qatari company to secure so-called construction slots from the shipyards.

The contract is in line with Qatar's plan to boost its LNG production capacity to 126 million tons by 2027 from the current 77 million tons. Qatar is the world's top LNG producer.

DSME's order is widely expected to lead to the securing of more orders for LNG carriers by the three major shipbuilders for the Qatari project.

Earlier in 2004-07, DSME successfully delivered 26 LNG carriers out of an order for 53 vessels placed by Qatar. DSME has an annual capacity to build around 20 LNG ships.

DSME has bagged orders worth $5.47 billion to build 16 LNG carriers, six container ships and one offshore plant so far this year, already achieving 61.5 percent of its yearly order target of $8.9 billion. (Yonhap)