LNG

Excelerate Energy, the leading US provider of floating LNG import terminals, said its floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), the “Exemplar”, arrived at the port of Inkoo, in Finland to become a Baltic regional supplier of natural gas.

The FSRU was previously loaded with a partial cargo of LNG which would serve as the initial commissioning cargo for the terminal.

The FSRU “Exemplar” has been chartered to Gasgrid Finland Oy for a period of 10 years.

“It will provide flexible, reliable, and secure delivery of regasified LNG to Finland and other Baltic countries,” said Excelerate.

Inkoo port is located on the Southern Coast of Finland and provides an optimal deepwater port at close proximity to the pipelines distributing the gas mainly to industrial end-users in the Baltic region.

The developer had made the move to enable independence from Russian pipeline natural gas.

The FSRU capacity alone is sufficient for the gas needs of both Finland and Estonia. Russian gas supplies through the Imatra entry point into Finland have been stopped since May 2022.

Finland already has two onshore LNG terminals at Pori and Tornio. They have been in operation since 2016 and 2018 respectively.

Infrastructure

“The arrival of the FSRU ‘Exemplar’ at the port of Inkoo represents an important milestone for Finland as it prepares to enhance its energy security and bring essential energy infrastructure to the region,” said Steven Kobos, President and Chief Executive of Excelerate.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved, and we are proud to have partnered with Gasgrid on this opportunity,” added Kobos.

In addition to providing regasification services under the time charter with Gasgrid, Excelerate said that through its recently formed Finnish gas marketing subsidiary, Excelerate Finland Gas Marketing, the US firm has executed an agreement for the sale of commissioning volumes and regasification capacity rights during the commissioning phase.

“Through this agreement, Excelerate Finland will be able to provide natural gas to downstream customers in Finland and other Baltic countries,” explained the Houston-based company.

Excelerate explained that the FSRU “Exemplar” departed drydock in Spain on December 6 where it underwent customer-requested winterization upgrades.

“The vessel subsequently procured its cargo from Excelerate’s global LNG portfolio via a ship-to-ship transfer with the FSRU ‘Excelsior’ near Gibraltar,” said the company.

“The ‘Excelsior’ recently completed its 10-year service in Israel and will go on charter to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2023,” it added.

The FSRU “Exemplar” is 291 metres long and 43 meters wide. It has a storage capacity of 150,900 cubic metres of LNG and can provide more than 5 billion cubic metres per annum of regasification capacity.

Excelerate Energy, the US floating LNG import terminal specialist, signed a five-year charter agreement in Berlin with the German Government for the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) “Excelsior”.

Excelerate Energy, the US LNG specialist and a market leader in floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), saw its shares increase by 11.8 percent in its trading debut after raising $384 million in the biggest US initial public offering since January 2022.

Shares in Excelerate closed on April 13 at $26.85 per share, giving the company a market value of about $2.8 billion based on the outstanding shares listed.

Excelerate shares are now quoted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “EE”.

Excelerate sold 16 million shares at the top of a marketed range of $21 to $24 per share in its IPO.

The share sale came at a time when FLNG project interest is increasing worldwide as nations try to underpin their energy security with fast-track import projects.

The company has pioneered over a dozen import ventures worldwide and has also led the way in ship-to-ship LNG transfers.

Excelerate, based in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas, is part of a privately held US energy group founded by George Kaiser, owner of the Bank of Oklahoma. Kaiser will continue to control the majority of the shares.

Developer

Excelerate developed the Bahia Blanca GasPort, South America’s first LNG import terminal in 2008, and has also operated GNL Escobar, an LNG import terminal along the Paraná River of Argentina, since 2011.

The business spans the globe, with regional offices in eight countries and operations in the US, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Excelerate prospectus for the IPO informed potential shareholders that it was the largest provider of regasified LNG in Argentina and Bangladesh and one of the largest providers of regasified LNG in Brazil and Pakistan, while also operating the biggest FSRU in Brazil.

The Excelerate company has additionally started FSRU-led import ventures in the US and the Middle East.

Excelerate had net income of $41 million and revenue of $889M in 2021 compared with $33M of profits and $431M in revenues in the previous year.

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