​On behalf of His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President & CEO of QatarEnergy and Chairman of Qatargas Board of Directors, Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatargas CEO, attended the celebration of the steel cutting of the first of its new generation of chartered Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) vessels to be constructed in a Korean shipyard.

Building upon an already successful global maritime initiative, QatarEnergy and Qatargas joined Samsung Heavy Industries, and JP Morgan Asset Management in a special ceremony on Geoje Island in the Republic of Korea to celebrate this milestone, which is part of State of Qatar's historic LNG Fleet Expansion Project. Qatargas is executing this largest ship building programme on behalf of QatarEnergy and other shareholders.

This event signifies an extension of QatarEnergy's international collaborations and commitment to global partnerships and follows the October 2022 successful initiation of steel cutting at Hudong-Zhonghua, a Chinese shipyard renowned for its excellence in LNG shipbuilding.

Also in attendance were Jin-Taek Jung, the CEO of Samsung Heavy Industries, Mr. Andy Dacy, the CEO of JP Morgan's Global Transport Group, senior executives from QatarEnergy and Qatargas.

The steel cutting ceremony in South Korea follows QatarEnergy's 2020 decision to enter into Ship Slot Reservation Agreements with three Korean shipyards: Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. Subsequently, in 2022, QatarEnergy signed multiple Time Charter Parties with various shipowners, including affiliates of JP Morgan Asset Management, a fund investing in a wide array of transportation assets.