For the design of the vessels, the company allocated $923m. The vessels with MOL will be jointly owned by Cosco.

Three 172,500 cu m LNG carriers have already signed shipbuilding contracts with South Korean yard DSME for construction by a special purpose company jointly formed by Cosco and MOL.

It is expected that the vessels will transport LNG for the Arctic LNG 2 project upon delivery in 2023.

In 2019, China's Cosco and Silk Road Fund entered into an agreement to create a joint venture Maritime Arctic Transport to operate an icebreaking fleet of Arctic ice-class vessels to serve Yamal LNG, Arctic LNG 2, and other potential projects with Russian state-run shipping major Sovcomflot and energy firm Novatek.

Maritime Business World