LNG

GasLog Ltd., the Greek LNG fleet owner and operator with 33 ships, reported a drop in quarterly earnings while new charter agreements were signed along with a re-financing deal covering 23 carriers in the fleet.

The company’s profits for the fourth quarter more than halved to $31.44 million from $68.70M in the prior-year quarter.

GasLog’s annual profits dropped by around $100M to $196.30M in 2023 from the $297.24M logged in 2022.

The company, whose headquarters are in Hamilton, Bermuda, said adjusted fourth-quarter profits declined to $53.27 million from $75.57M in the same three months of 2022 ,while revenues also fell to $229.94M from $244.84M a year ago.

Charter extension

During the quarter GasLog extended by five years the time-charter agreement of the “GasLog Singapore”, a tri-fuel, diesel-electric (TFDE) LNG carrier, with New York-based New Fortress Energy. The contract is now due to expire in 2030.

In addition, the company’s affiliate, GasLog Partners LP, signed a multi-year time-charter with a major energy exploration company for the “GasLog Santiago”, also a TFDE vessel.

A third charter deal was for the carrier, “Methane Jane Elizabeth”, a steam turbine propulsion ship, and signed with Cheniere Marketing International, a unit of Houston, Texas-based Cheniere Energy. The contract is now due to expire in 2025.

GasLog also signed a new $2.8 billion five-year banking deal in the form of a senior secured revolving credit facility in November 2023.

“Involving 14 international banks, the facility refinanced the outstanding debt of $2.1Bln secured by 23 LNG carriers across both GasLog and GasLog Partners, following the acquisition by GasLog in July 2023 of all the outstanding common units of GasLog Partners,” explained GasLog Ltd.

Refinanced ships

The 23 LNG carriers, comprising 12 GasLog vessels and 11 GasLog Partners ships, include 10 dual-fuel two-stroke engine propulsion (X-DF) carriers, 10 TFDE vessels and three steam-propelled carriers.

“The facility has a five-year tenor, including two one-year extension options and simplifies GasLog’s debt structure, providing incremental available liquidity while reducing interest cost and debt service requirements,” GasLog Ltd added.

The GasLog board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per common share of GasLog to GasLog’s shareholders of record as of February 15, 2024.

At the end of December, GasLog had $221.4M of cash and cash equivalents and an additional amount of $10M of time deposits.

GasLog additionally had $3.1bln of debts outstanding under its credit facilities and bond agreements, of which $107.9M is repayable within one year.

GasLog LNG Partners, with an operational fleet of 12 vessels, reported increased revenues and profits as it proceeded with the merger process with affiliate GasLog Ltd.

The company’s quarterly revenues increased 16 percent to $99.07 million from $85.45m in the same three months of 2022.

Net profits rose 4 percent to $36.37M from $34.98M in the prior-year first quarter.

The Partnership’s market overview and outlook said headline spot rates in the first quarter of 2023 for the most modern vessels fell to an average of about $71,560 per day, a fall of 78 percent compared with the average of the fourth quarter of 2022.

Fall in rates

“This fall in rates is mainly due to the seasonal downturn, high inventories, continuing strong flows from the US to Europe and bearish sentiments. This has been compounded by increased availability of relets,” said the Partnership, citing various sources.

One-year time charter rates for tri-fuel diesel-electric propulsion (TFDE) carriers averaged $155,000 per day in the first quarter of 2023, about 18 percent lower than rates in the fourth quarter of 2022, reflecting the seasonal downturn.

Earnings highlights during the first quarter included the Partnership’s sale and bareboat lease-back of the 155,000 cubic metres capacity TFDE vessel “GasLog Sydney”.

The deal was with a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Development Bank Leasing and with no repurchase option or obligation.

The company said a time-charter agreement for the TFDE carrier “GasLog Geneva with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell was extended by five years after the exercise of their extension option.

The merger transaction with GasLog Ltd is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2023, subject to approval of the holders of a majority of the common units of the Partnership and the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

GasLog Ltd owns 30.2 percent of the common units of the Partnership and has entered into a support agreement with the Partnership.

“The entering into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with GasLog is a transformative transaction for the Partnership that will enable its unitholders to take advantage of a significant premium to the unit trading price,” said Paolo Enoizi, Chief Executive.

The Partnership’s owned and bareboat fleet comprises the following vessels: “GasLog Sydney”, “GasLog Geneva”, “Methane Rita Andrea”, “Methane Alison Victoria”, “GasLog Gibraltar”, “Solaris”, “GasLog Santiago”, “GasLog Seattle”, “Methane Jane Elizabeth”, “Gaslog Greece”, “GasLog Glasgow” and “Methane Becki Anne”.

Dec 7 (LNGJ) - The 155,000 cubic metres capacity “GasLog Santiago” is scheduled to deliver a cargo on December 10 to the UK Dragon LNG terminal at Milford Haven in Wales from the US Sabine Pass plant of Cheniere Energy in Louisiana, according to the port authorities. The cargo was heading for the UK as prices remain firm, with the National Balancing Point benchmark quoted at the equivalent of $5.70 per million British thermal units. The continental European Dutch Title Transfer facility (TTF) price was lower at the equivalent of $5.20 per MMBtu.

GasLog Ltd, the Monaco-based LNG fleet owner with 25 ships operating and nine others on order, has given more details of its terms for the latest time charters for vessels to US LNG producer Cheniere Energy, owner of the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana and the Corpus Christi facility in Texas.

July 10 (LNGJ) - The 155,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Gaslog Santiago” is scheduled to arrive on July 12 in ballast at the Egyptian export plant at Idku that has been shipping occasional cargoes for Royal Dutch Shell as Egypt ramps up its domestic production. The liquefaction facility at Idku began exporting small volumes of LNG again in late 2016 and through 2017 and early 2018 after operator Shell reached an agreement for limited feed-gas supplies from Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company. Idku, located east of the port of Alexandria, loaded its first cargo in May 2005.

Dec 20 (LNGJ) - The 155,000 cubic metres capacity “GasLog Santiago” has arrived with a cargo from the Atlantic LNG plant in Trinidad at the bay on the Aegean coast of Turkey where the onshore Aliaga import terminal is located as well as the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit “GDF Suez Neptune”, according to shipping data. The Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corp. (Botas) has already purchased cargoes to be delivered to the “GDF Suez Neptune” FSRU in Turkey. The vessel is chartered from French energy company Engie and has storage capacity of 145,000 cubic metres. The Aliaga terminal, near where the FSRU is moored, is owned by EgeGaz.