Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, who is also Qatar's energy Minister, put pen to paper in video link between Doha and Beijing, signing for fifteen 174,000 cu m LNG carriers at China's Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding in a deal worth RMB20bn ($2.8BN), a record for Chinese ship exports.

The contract is the first quarter of a huge order that has been on the cards from Qatar for more than a year. South Korean yards will be anxiously hoping that they can get some of the remaining 45 ships Qatar plans to order in the coming weeks.

The last time Qatar issued a tender on such a scale was 16 years ago with every order of the so-called Q-Maxes and Q-Flexes going to South Korea.

Hudong Zhonghua has led China's entry into LNG carrier construction, building the nation's first ships both for domestic owners and for export clients.