Qatargas Operating Company Limited​ (Qatargas) announced the delivery of the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on a Q-Max LNG carrier to the Tianjin LNG Receiving Terminal in China.

The cargo aboard the Qatargas-chartered LNG vessel, 'Al Mafyar,' was loaded at Ras Laffan on 21 October 2020 and delivered to the Tianjin Terminal, located in the northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, on 10th November 2020.

This is the first cargo discharge operation by Qatargas to this LNG terminal involving a Q-Max LNG carrier. The Q-Max is the largest LNG vessel class in the world and has the ability to deliver 266,000 cubic metres of LNG.

The Tianjin LNG Receiving Terminal is owned and operated by the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), one of China's largest state-owned enterprises. The terminal has a capacity of six million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and is currently being expanded to handle up to 10.8 MTPA by 2022. The Tianjin LNG receiving terminal received its first LNG cargo in February 2018 and has received more than 200 LNG cargoes so far.

Currently China has a total of 22 LNG receiving terminals (including 3 small scale terminals), 11 of which can accommodate Q-Max LNG vessels. Qatargas has to date delivered LNG cargoes to 13 LNG terminals in China. Ever since the first LNG cargo was delivered to China in September 2009, more than 62 million tonnes of LNG was delivered to China in total.​

Al Mafyar is the first Q-Max LNG vessel to call at the Tianjin LNG receiving terminal and the 100th LNG vessel to call at the terminal in 2020.

About Qatargas

Qatargas is the world’s largest LNG producing company with a production capacity of 42 MTA. The State of Qatar, as the world’s leading LNG producer, anticipates that the People’s Republic of China will become one of the world’s largest gas markets.

About Sinopec

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group, established by the state in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation, and further incorporated as a limited liability corporation in August 2018. A super large petroleum and petrochemical group, the company has a registered capital of 326.5 billion yuan with the board chairman of Sinopec Group serving as its legal representative. It exercises the investor's rights to the related state assets owned by its full subsidiaries, controlled companies and share-holding companies, including receiving returns on assets, making major decisions and appointing managers. It operates, manages and supervises state assets according to related laws, and shoulders the corresponding responsibility of maintaining and increasing the value of state assets.