Golar LNG reported net income of $345.2 mill for the first quarter of this year.
Adjusted EBITDA was $93.4 mill for the quarter, which included the FLNG ’Hilli’, ’Golar Arctic’ and ’Golar Tundra’, however excluding the eight TFDE vessels and management companies sold to Cool Company (CoolCo).
This sale is due to be finalised this quarter. In total, the CoolCo transactions will reduce the company’s contractual debt position by $821 mill, release around $217 mill in cash and cash equivalents to Golar, whilst the company will still maintain a 31.25% shareholding in CoolCo.
In addition, Golar sold 6.2 mill New Fortress Energy (NFE) shares in 2Q22, gaining net cash proceeds of $253 mill. Golar now owns 12.4 mill NFE shares following the sale.
Total cash and listed securities increased by $0.4 bill to $1.3 bill during 1Q22, while the share of contractual debt decreased by $0.5 bill to $1.7 bill and a further $0.5 bill in 2Q22 after the sale of remaining LNGCs to CoolCo in April.
FLNG ’Hilli’ maintained its unbroken four-year record of 100% uptime during the quarter and started to produce its additional 0.2 mill tonnes per year production, increasing scheduled production volume to 1.4 mill tonnes.
Conversion of the FLNG ’Gimi’ for a 20-year contract with bp, scheduled to commence in 4Q23, is 83% technically complete. Once delivered, ’Gimi’ is expected to unlock around $3 bill of earnings backlog to Golar, equivalent to $151 mill in annual adjusted EBITDA.
Developments in Europe have created an urgent need for more floating LNG terminals. As a result, Golar had received multiple approaches from European governments and utility companies for the FSRU ’Golar Tundra’, which was snapped up by Snam (see page 4).
