Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan met with Qatar's energy minister Wednesday in Seoul to discuss bilateral cooperation in energy supply chains, plant construction and shipbuilding.
In the meeting with Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, Qatar's minister of state for energy affairs, the two sides exchanged views on Qatar's plan to expand liquefied natural gas production and measures to strengthen supply chain cooperation, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.
Qatar is one of South Korea's major partners in LNG, with Seoul having imported 4.87 million tons of natural gas from the Middle Eastern country in the first eight months of this year. The volume marked the second-largest amount of LNG imported from a single country.
The ministers also agreed to bolster the two countries' "mutually beneficial" cooperation in plant construction and shipbuilding, and create joint projects in the areas.
Qatar ranked fifth in Korea's overseas plant orders in the January-September period, with total contracts worth $2.79 billion.
In the shipbuilding sector, South Korea's top three firms have collectively secured orders for 98 LNG carriers worth $21.7 billion from QatarEnergy, headed by Kaabi, from 2022 to 2024, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)
