It marked the largest single ship contract for a shipbuilder. Details were not disclosed, but the shipbuilder teamed up with the Russian Far East shipyard Zvezda to take part in the icebreaker design.

The term under the contract is valid until December 2025. Russia, a big producer of gas, plans to export the same volume of LNG as Qatar. Novatek, Russia's second-largest producer of natural gas, aims to start processing LNG for Arctic LNG 2. A number of ice-breaking LNG tankers are expected to be needed for the project.

The deal increased the backlog of orders for the shipbuilder to $21.1 billion and accumulated orders to $3.8 billion, or 45% of the target for this year.

SHI said additional orders are likely to be awarded for large-scale LNG projects such as Mozambique and Qatar, as well as for container ships and crude oil carriers.

South Korean shipbuilders have been seeking orders for an LNG project for Russia. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine received an order worth approximately 901.3 billion won from a Russian shipper in June 2020 to construct two LNG barges that will serve as intermediate stops to supply Europe and Asia with natural gas generated in the Arctic Ocean.

Maritime Business World