On June 2, Samsung Heavy Industries announced in a regulatory filing that it had signed a contract with a North American shipowner to build one floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) unit. The order is valued at 4.3301 trillion won (approximately $2.85 billion) and is scheduled for delivery in July 2030. Construction is expected to begin officially upon receipt of the client’s notice to proceed.
To date, Samsung Heavy Industries has secured orders for 7 of the 11 new FLNG units currently under construction worldwide, accounting for a 64% global market share. Including the “Prelude”—the world’s largest FLNG unit built for Shell—Samsung Heavy Industries has delivered a total of four FLNG units.
With this latest order, Samsung Heavy Industries has secured a total of 28 new building orders this year, valued at $8.3 billion, achieving 60% of its annual order target of $13.9 billion.
By business sector, in the merchant ship segment, Samsung Heavy Industries has secured orders for 27 new vessels worth $5 billion this year, achieving 88% of its annual target of $5.7 billion. These include 12 LNG carriers, 1 LNG-FSRU, 2 ethane carriers, 4 gas carriers, 2 container ships, and 6 crude oil tankers; In the offshore engineering sector, Samsung Heavy Industries’ order value has reached $3.3 billion, achieving 40% of its annual target of $8.2 billion.
A Samsung Heavy Industries spokesperson stated, “This order once again demonstrates Samsung Heavy Industries’ competitiveness in the FLNG sector. Leveraging our proven technology and extensive project execution experience, we will continue to pursue FLNG orders worldwide.”
Although Samsung Heavy Industries has not disclosed further details regarding the latest FLNG construction contract, market sources indicate that the order is related to U.S. LNG developer Delfin Midstream.
In early 2026, Delfin Midstream announced the extension of the Letter of Award (LOA) signed with Samsung Heavy Industries in October 2025 to fully advance the preliminary work for the first FLNG unit of the Delfin LNG project.
It is understood that the Delfin LNG project is located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 74 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana. The project plans to construct three FLNG units with a maximum annual LNG production capacity of 13.2 million tons.
In addition to the first FLNG unit for which a formal construction contract has already been signed, Samsung Heavy Industries and Delfin Midstream have signed a shipyard reservation agreement for the second FLNG unit of the Delfin LNG project and plan to jointly develop the third unit. This implies that Samsung Heavy Industries is highly likely to be awarded the contracts for the remaining two FLNG units of the Delfin LNG project. Based on the construction cost of over $2.8 billion for the first unit, the total cost for the three units is expected to exceed $8.4 billion.