(Yicai Global) Jan. 10 -- Chinese shipbuilding giant Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group has landed China’s single biggest and most valuable order for large liquid natural gas carriers from China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the country’s leading buyer of LNG.

Under the CNY7.5 billion (USD1.2 billion) deal, Hudong-Zhonghua will supply CNOOC with six LNG carriers with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters each, China News Services reported on Jan. 8. The agreement was signed on the same day.

The Changsheng series carriers were independently developed by Shanghai-based Hudong-Zhonghua and can reach a top speed of 19.5 knots. Their loading capacity is 800 m3 higher than previous vessels of the same scale and their carbon emissions are 10 tons lower per day.

CNOOC Energy Technology and Services, CNOOC Gas and Power Singapore Trading and Marketing, COSCO Shipping LNG Investment Shanghai, and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines will invest in building the six carriers, CNOOC Energy said in a stock exchange filing on Jan. 7.

Shanghai-listed CNOOC Energy owns 45 percent of the project through its wholly owned unit CETS Investment Management HK, it added, without revealing the other shareholding ratios. The new ships will be leased to CNOOC Gas and Power Singapore.

The project will help CNOOC Energy join hands with the world’s leading LNG shippers to build a safe, flexible, green, and low-cost LNG carrier fleet, it noted.

CNOOC Energy owns and operates 10 large-scale LNG ships and a 30,000 m3 small-to-mid-sized vessel, it said, adding that a 12,000 m3 LNG bunkering ship is under construction.

Shares of CNOOC Energy [SHA: 600968] ended little changed at CNY2.99 (47 US cents) today, a 0.3 percent gain. The stock rose 25 percent in 2021.

Editor: Futura Costaglione