LNG

Peninsula, the leading independent global supplier of marine energy, has commenced LNG bunkering services at the Spanish Port of Algeciras with its new and purpose-built vessel, the “Levante LNG”.

Peninsula, the leading global independent marine energy supplier founded to fill a gap in the Gibraltar market for bunkering services, has successfully completed the supply of liquefied natural gas as a marine fuel to a crude oil tanker owned by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping.

The delivery took place at the Gibraltar Port’s Western Anchorage.

Peninsula’s “Levante LNG”, the company’s first purpose-built 12,500 cubic metres capacity LNG bunkering vessel, supplied the EPS Suezmax crude oil tanker, the “Starway”, with around 3,500 cubic metres of LNG.

“EPS vessels like the ‘Starway’ and her sister, the ‘Greenway’, the world’s first LNG fuelled Suezmax tanker, are paving the way for a lower carbon future,” said Nacho de Miguel, Peninsula’s Head of Alternative Fuels and Sustainability.

“Through our investment in assets like the ‘Levante LNG’ we can close the supply chain loop to give these vessels access to lower-carbon fuels in the world’s leading ports,” De Miguel stated.

“I want to thank EPS for partnering with Peninsula to help power them towards a more sustainable future,” he added.

The EPS General Manager of Operations, Captain Suraj Sundaresan, said Gibraltar was one of those ports that was making efforts to cater for vessels seeking alternative fuels like LNG.

“Peninsula bridges shipowners like us who are at the forefront of the industry’s energy transition, and Ports who are evolving to host alternative-fuel powered vessels,” explained Sundaresan.

“Our vision to lower emissions is mirrored in Peninsula’s desire to provide lower carbon options today. The availability of low-carbon fuel supply is incredibly important, he added.

“As the demand for alternative fuels towards decarbonisation increases, we rely on suppliers like Peninsula to help keep our state-of-the-art alternative-fuelled ships moving,” Sundaresan declared.

Peninsula’s “Levante LNG” bunker ship arrived at her Mediterranean home at the end of September and is now fully operational in the Strait of Gibraltar and the ports of the Western Mediterranean.

The bunkering company is also building its cruise ship portfolio after successfully supplying Royal Caribbean’s cruise liner “Silver Nova” with LNG fuel in another operation in Gibraltar in November.

June 29 (LNGJ) - Cool Company (CoolCo), the LNG shipping joint venture led by Eastern Pacific Shipping, has exercised an option to acquire two newbuild LNG carriers for its growing fleet of 28 ships from affiliates of Eastern Pacific. The newbuilds with 174,000 cubic metres capacity will be named “Kool Tiger” and “Kool Panther” and are scheduled for delivery from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in South Korea in September and December of 2024.

   The company said the newbuilds are being acquired under the pre-existing purchase option price of around $234 million per ship. CoolCo's vessels include a managed fleet of 17 ships and an owned fleet of 11 vessels. “With the vast majority of the global LNG carrier orderbook already committed to liquefaction projects coming online in the years ahead, few, if any, modern LNG carriers are expected to be available for time charter employment during the late 2024 window,” said CoolCo Chief Executive Richard Tyrrell.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French LNG storage technology company, has signed technical services agreements with Eastern Pacific Shipping and its LNG affiliate Cool Company Ltd for a global fleet of 33 vessels, including 24 LNG carriers.

Under the agreement GTT will support Eastern Pacific and CoolCo with the maintenance and operation of their LNG fleet and six Very Large Ethane Carriers and three LNG-fuelled container ships operated by EPS, all equipped with Mark III or No. 96 membrane containment systems technologies developed by GTT.

GTT said it would provide on-site technical assistance for inspection, maintenance, repairs, operations and engineering services.

Eastern Pacific and CoolCo will also benefit from access to the HEARS® emergency hotline, which enables ship-owners and their crews to contact GTT’s experts at any time to respond to operational issues.

“We welcome the signature of this agreement with our key partners EPS and CoolCo, who operate a large and diverse fleet of vessels equipped with GTT technologies,” said Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and Chief Executive of GTT.

Support services

“Our tailor-made support services allow us to guarantee maximum efficiency and safety for the vessels in operation,” added Berterottière.

Richard Tyrrell, CEO of CoolCo, explained that GTT was an important partner of the company.

“We look forward to continuing to work with GTT and to extending our levels of collaboration,” Tyrrell added.

Cyril Ducau, CEO of Eastern Pacific, said his company was pleased to expand its partnership with GTT.

“GTT’s technology will play a key role as EPS rejuvenates its fleet with eco-friendly tonnage,” Ducau stated.

GTT has also been making progress in the design of the next generation of LNG carriers with fewer storage tanks.

The Paris-based company and South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries recently received an approval from UK classification society Lloyd’s Register for a new design of GTT’s three-tank concept.

Carrier re-designs

The new design is for a new LNG carrier featuring GTT’s three-tank Mark III Flex membrane containment system, which will also allow for the reduction in the length of vessels.

Analysts noted that about 30 years ago, GTT upgraded LNG carriers from five storage tanks to four tanks and the company now hopes to bring the market forward with a three-tank LNG carrier.

This approval in principle is the result of a joint development project initiated in 2022 and aimed at designing a new generation of LNG vessels.

GTT explained that the three-tank LNG carrier concept permits an increase in LNG cargo capacity and improves maintenance efficiencies through the suppression of one cofferdam, one pump tower and all associated cryogenic equipment.

The company added that the design also improved the ratio between the volume of LNG transported and the surface area of the cryogenic liner.

Cool Company (CoolCo), the LNG shipping joint venture led by Eastern Pacific Shipping and which is growing its owned and managed fleets, said the market was showing continued strength as it entered into a new time-charter agreement for one of its tri-fuel, diesel-electric vessels.

The company, headquartered in Bermuda, said the multi-year charter with an energy major starts in early 2024 upon redelivery from the vessel’s current charter, adding backlog.

“We are delighted to have secured this attractive time charter, locking in cover at a rate that reflects the continued strength of the LNG carrier market ” said Richard Tyrrell, Chief Executive of CoolCo.

“The forward nature of this contract demonstrates the desire of LNG producers, offtakers, and portfolio players to secure modern tonnage to transport the dramatically increasing volumes of LNG coming online through the middle and latter parts of the decade,” stated Tyrrell.

“With vessel availability coinciding with seasonal peaks for chartering, CoolCo stands to benefit from the ongoing LNG carrier re-pricing cycle. Happy Norwegian Constitution Day to our investors,” added the CEO.

Shares

CoolCo’s shares are registered with the US Security and Exchange Commission and listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange in addition to the Euronext Growth list in Oslo, both under the ticker “CLCO”.

CoolCo also has an owned fleet of 11 LNG vessels and a managed fleet of 18 ships.

The owners of the managed ships include sector leaders Golar LNG, Avenir LNG and New Fortress Energy.

The CoolCo-owned fleet comprises the following vessels: the “Golar Bear” the “Golar Crystal”, the “Golar Frost”, the “Golar Glacier”, the “Golar Ice”, the “Golar Kelvin”, the “Golar Snow”, the “Kool Baltic”, the “Kool Boreas” and the “Kool Firn” and the “Kool Orca” 

Höegh LNG Holdings, the owner of 10 floating storage and regasification units and two conventional LNG carrier, has completed the acquisition of the LNG carrier “Golar Seal”.

The company purchased the 2013-built “Golar Seal” from Cool Co., the LNG shipping joint venture led by Eastern Pacific Shipping.

Höegh LNG paid $184.3M for the vessel with 160,000 cubic metres of capacity.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based, Höegh also assumed all costs associated with the vessel's scheduled dry-docking.

Höegh said that the “Golar Seal” would also be renamed the “Höegh Gandria”.

Höegh last month reported net losses for the fourth quarter and the year during a busy period as three vessels were prepared for floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) operations in Germany and Brazil.

Höegh still posted increased revenues during the last three months of 2022 amounting to $106.06M, up from $94.66M in the same quarter of 2021. Full-year revenues rose to $380.8M from $351.8M in 2021.

FSRU market

The company increased vessel operating expenses primarily related to repositioning of three vessels to make them ready for FSRU operations.

All three vessels completed their FSRU operational preparations at shipyards during the fourth quarter and two 10-year time charter contracts with the German Federal Government were signed in December and January respectively.

The company’s FSRUs “Höegh Esperanza” and “Höegh Gannet” were allocated to contracts and deployed in Germany at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven and at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River north of Hamburg.

The third vessel, “Höegh Giant”, left the yard in November and was operating in the LNG carrier market on an interim charter before it was scheduled to go to Brazil in the second quarter of 2023.

Höegh signed a 10-year charter agreement with a Brazilian joint venture comprising São Paulo Regas Company and Comgás, Brazil’s largest gas distributor.

Höegh added in its earnings statement that its business development team was in “active dialogue” with several potential new projects looking for FSRU capacity which could provide growth opportunities for the group in the future.

Cool Company Ltd, the LNG shipping joint venture owned by Eastern Pacific Shipping, one major shareholder and investors who bought into an initial public offering, is moving forward with plans for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange and will require a temporary trading suspension.

CoolCo is becoming a speciality LNG fleet owner after arranging the phased acquisition of the company’s initial eight tri-fuel, diesel-electric (TFDE) LNG carriers in 2022.

There was then also a subsequent asset acquisition of four LNG carriers on November 10, 2022, from an affiliate of Eastern Pacific Shipping.

Prior to the listing on the NYSE, Coolco additionally altered its ownership structure as Golar LNG sold its stake.

Prior to February 28, CoolCo's 53.68 million shares were split between 26.79M (49.9 percent) owned by Eastern Pacific, 22.43M (41.8 percent) publicly owned after the IPO and 4.46M shares (8.3 percent) held by Golar LNG Ltd.

Golar LNG then announced that it had sold 4.46M shares in CoolCo to Mi Hong Yoon, a member of the CoolCo board, at a price of 130 Norwegian crown ($12.5) per share and a total of over $55 million.

Coolco said that regarding the previous public filing of a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list its common shares on the NYSE, the US regulatory review process has concluded.

“However, following this, the company has filed an acceleration request asking the SEC to declare its registration statement effective on March 14, 2023,” CoolCo explained.

Alterations

“In connection with the listing of the company’s shares on the NYSE and to facilitate the transfer of the company’s shares between the NYSE and Euronext Growth Oslo, the company will amend the registration structure for its shares,” said Hamilton, Bermuda-headquartered CoolCo.

The company noted that a trading suspension of the shares would be required in connection with the re-registration process.

Further, the company will change its ticker code on Euronext Growth Oslo from “COOL” to CLCO” when trading resumes following the trading suspension.

Coolco is currently finalizing the administrative processes in relation to the re-registration.

“Once these processes are concluded, the company will confirm the dates for the expected trading suspension and the listing date,” it added.

Cool Company Ltd, the LNG shipping joint venture formed between Eastern Pacific Shipping and Golar LNG has issued a business and financial update as it builds a modern fleet and prepares for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange after last year’s initial public offering.

Golar LNG, the shipping company now specialising in a small but growing fleet of floating LNG project vessels, increased revenues as well as net profits due to one-items while forecasting future high revenues from floating liquefaction and FLNG terminal projects as it also spun off eight modern carriers to a joint venture.

European maritime classification society DNV said that ship owners placed orders for 16 liquefied natural gas-powered vessels in February 2022, mostly for containerships and car carriers even as LNG bunkering fuel prices continued to increase.

DNV said that compared with January 2022, orders dropped by 24 vessels but January included around 15 vessels from December 2021.

The class society said that according to its data September 2021 still holds the record with 35 orders for LNG-powered vessels.

“Order intake for LNG-fueled newbuilds continues at a high pace, despite increasingly uncertain outlook for gas prices,” said Martin Wold, principal consultant at DNV.

“The total confirmed fleet has now reached 710 ships,” he said.

Wold noted that Seaspan Marine Corp. contributed to extra LNG bunkering supply capacity with their order for two bunkering vessels in China.

Newbuilds

The February count includes orders from companies such as London-based Zodiac Maritime, Eastern Pacific Shipping, also headquartered in the UK, H-Line Shipping of South Korea and Mitsui Osk Lines of Japan.

According to DNV, there are now 269 LNG-powered ships already in operation with LNG-fuelled car and passenger ferries continuing to lead the way with 44 in operation.

The LNG-fuelled fleet also includes 31 oil-chemical tankers, 37 offshore supply vessels, 37 tugs and 32 containerships.

As for vessels on order, LNG-powered containerships account for a big part of the orders with 123 units.

Owners had also ordered 60 LNG-powered crude oil carriers and the fleet stands at 87, and with 60 car carriers rising to 67 and 52 bulk carriers and with new orders taking it to 63. Ferries taking cars and passengers now number 53 on order and in operation.

There are also now 33 cruise liners for the LNG bunkering market, including newbuilds.

These statistics do not include smaller inland vessels and barges that are part of the Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp (ARA) refining hub in northwest Europe.

DNV added that the recent surge in LNG prices appeared not to have dented enthusiasm for LNG-powered tonnage orders.

Data shows that LNG priced in fuel oil terms at the Dutch port of Rotterdam in February 2022 stood at $1,585 per tonne, up from $412 per tonne in February 2021, while Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil at the Dutch port gained $238 per tonnes over the same period to now cost $731 per tonne.