Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) announced in a statement that it has awarded a 1.07 trillion won ($850 million) order to build four liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers under a deal with a Qatar Energy.

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 Energy in June 2020 to construct more than 100 LNG vessels through 2027.

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.

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, statement mentioned.