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Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has won an order to build two small-scale liquefied natural gas carriers (LNGCs), one of which is to be constructed to carry out LNG bunkering.

Both 7,500-cubic-metre (cbm) vessels are to be built for Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) and used for the transportation of LNG from Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, to Jeju Island. The total value of the order is approximately $100 million.

The LNG vessels are to be equipped with a KC-1 cargo containment system designed in Korea.

"The contract is a significant milestone for SHI, developing a leading track record in KC-1 LNG carriers, as well as expanding into small-scale LNGCs and LNG bunkering vessels," SHI said.

SHI says it has won a total of $2.3 billion worth of orders so far in 2017, including eight tankers, two LNGCs, one LNG-FSRU, and one floating production unit (FPU).

Last year, Bunker Index reported that Kogas was one of 14 organizations to sign a three-year cooperation agreement to provide LNG bunkering to the South Korean port of Ulsan.

Back in 2015, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) said it intended to build LNG bunkering terminals at some of its key ports, and to win 70 percent of worldwide orders for dual-fuel tankers over the next decade.

South Korea is the world's leading shipbuilding nation. The top three vessel constructors - Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd, Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd - are all South Korean firms. The Asian country is also the world's second-largest LNG importer after Japan.