Chairman Kwon Oh-kap of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings.

Korea’s “Big Three” shipyards, including Hyundai Heavy Industries, signed MOAs with Qatar Petroleum (QP) to secure more than 100 natural gas carriers worth 23.6 trillion won.

Participants at a signing ceremony that took place at Seoul Lotte Hotel on June 1 included Minister Sung Yoon-mo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Saad al-Kaabi, QP's chief executive and Qatar's energy minister, Qatargas CEO Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Thani, President Ga Sam-hyun of Hyundai Heavy Industries, President Nam Joon-woo of Samsung Heavy Industries, and President Lee Sung-keun of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).

The deals signed with HHI, DSME and Samsung Heavy Industries, will occupy much of the three shipyeards’ LNG ship construction capacity through 2027.

Qatar is the world’s biggest LNG producing country. QP, the state-run LNG producer in the world's top supplier of the fuel, plans to raise LNG production to around 126 million tons per annum by 2027 from today's 77 million tons.

Words surfaced that declining international crude oil prices could delay the LNG expansion project, but it has been pushed ahead as planned. Increased LNG production has led to the ordering of new LNG carriers. According to foreign news reports, Qatar plans to increase the number of LNG carriers from current 74 to 190.

Qatari Energy Minister al-Kaabi revealed a plan to order 60 LNG carriers to the Korean government when he visited Korea in January 2019.

Minister Sung Yoon-mo of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and President Ga Sam-hyun of Hyundai Heavy Industries hold a certificate of an MOA to secure slots for building LNG carriers for Qatar Petroleum at a ceremony that took place at Seoul Lotte Hotel on June 1. (Photos: HHI, MOTIE)

Chmn. Kwon of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Calls for Ramping Up Safety Management

Chairman Kwon Oh-kap of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings told CEOs of the group’s three shipbuilding subsidiaries to ensure safety management.

Chairman Kwon issued this and other orders while looking at HHI’s shipyard in Ulsan on June 8.

Chairman Kwon was accompanied by HHI CEO & President Han Young-seuk, Hyundai Mipo President Shin Hyun-tae, and CEO & Senior Executive Vice President President Kim Hyung-gwan of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries as well as President Lee Sang-gyun, who was appointed to head the shipbuilding business of HHI of late.

Kwon told the managers that the occurrence of a safety accident means the collapse of a principle of making safety a top priority policy of safety management. He told the participants they should be committed to ensuring safety management with a sense of a crisis that factories could be shut down.

Chairman Kwon instructed a review of all systems related to safety, including institutional, educational and investment issues and he called for mobilizing all management capabilities to ensure safety. He said it is significant for employees from offices responsible for production and site workers to be armed with a firm awareness toward safety.

Meanwhile, HHI came up with a package of steps to ramp up safety management to put safety management into practice on June 1. To this end, HHI plans to invest a combined 300 billion won in the next three years.

HHI CEO & President Han Young-seuk and President Lee Sang-gyun of the shipbuilding business at HHI joined other executives and staff members in a ceremony to declare a new safety environment on June 5.