LNG

April 30 (LNGJ) - Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 vessels and several chartered to some of the largest market players, has elected Ola Lorentzon as the new Chairman of the board. Lorentzon replaces David McManus who did not stand for re-election as a director at the Annual General Meeting.

   Lorentzon has served as a director of Flex since June 2017. He served as Principal Executive Officer of Golden Ocean Group from 2010 to 2015 and was Chief Executive of Frontline Management AS from 2000 to 2003. “I am proud to take over the Chairman position after the long-standing stewardship of David McManus, who leaves behind him a company in excellent financial shape, with an attractive contract backlog and with a strong management team. I would like to thank David for his 13 years of service on the board,” stated Lorentzon.

Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 vessels and several chartered to some of the largest market players, reported a halving of fourth-quarter net profits and forecast a challenging next two years for the sector with more ships in the global fleet.

“We see a somewhat more challenging freight market as there are more ships for delivery compared to the expected new export volumes,” said Øystein Kalleklev, Chief Executive of Flex LNG Management whose charterers include Cheniere of the US and UK major BP.

“Hence, we think Flex LNG is very well positioned as we have 94 percent charter coverage for 2024 and 50 years minimum firm charter backlog, which may increase to 71 years if all charterer’s options are extended,” Kalleklev explained.

Fuel savings

“Additionally, our fleet consists entirely of large LNG carriers fitted with the most modern two-stroke propulsion system resulting in significant fuel savings compared to older generation tonnage,” the CEO added.

Flex earnings showed a halving of fourth-quarter net income to $19.39 million from $41.47M in the same three months of 2022.

Annual net profits dropped to $120.04M from $188.04M in the 2022. Vessel operating revenues in 2023 came to $371.02M versus $347.91M in the previous year.

“The increase is due to a higher proportion of our fleet on improved longer term fixed-rate contracts as well as a relatively stronger spot market compared to 2022,” said Kalleklev.

“This is offset by scheduled dry-dockings of the vessels ‘Flex Enterprise’, ‘Flex Endeavour,’ ‘Flex Ranger’ and ‘Flex Rainbow’ in 2023, resulting in 77 off-hire days,” the CEO said.

Vessel expenses for the fourth quarter came to $97.2M compared with $94.6M for the third quarter 2023.

Average Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) rates amounted to $81,114 per day for the fourth quarter versus $79,207 per day for the third quarter 2023.

Revenues

“We guided that our revenues would increase from $348M in 2022 to approximately $370M in 2023 and we delivered revenues of $371M in 2023, while revenues for the fourth quarter came in at $97.2M in line with quarterly guidance,” Kalleklev stated.

In an overview the LNG fright market, Flex noted that there were 630 live ships in the fleet at the end of 2023, with 210 steamers still in service.

“An additional 33 newbuilds were added to the fleet last year while 68 newbuild orders were placed, representing a significant decrease from the 145 orders in 2022 and 69 newbuilds are scheduled to be delivered in 2024, with seven uncommitted for long-term contracts,” Flex said.

Flex also stated that newbuild prices for the base specifications have “somewhat tapered off” from the peak of $265M, with ship brokers quoting $258M to 262M as of early February 2024.

July 6 (LNGJ) - Flex LNG, the owner of 13 LNG carriers, has updated its market and revenues guidance to be presented at a conference organized by Norwegian investment bank Arctic Securities. “Given the recently announced Time Charter Agreements for ‘Flex Rainbow’, ‘Flex Enterprise’ and ‘Flex Amber’ which have secured in total 24 years of fixed hire employment, Flex LNG has made positive adjustments to its revenue guidance for the year,” said the company.

   Flex LNG now expects revenues for the second quarter of 2022 to be around $85 million compared with $80M previously, $90M in the third quarter and $90 to $100M in the fourth quarter. The company added that it expected higher Time Charter Equivalent Earnings (TCE) in 2023 compared with 2022. “This was due to repricing of its employment portfolio and significantly reduced spot exposure which had dragged down revenues in the first quarter of 2022 due to the pull of US cargoes to Europe in this period,” said the company.

Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 carriers, said that Cheniere Marketing, a unit of the operator of the Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi export plants on the US Gulf Coast, has declared its option to employ a fifth LNG carrier under existing time charter agreements.

Cheniere and Flex LNG have also agreed that the 174,100 cubic metres capacity “Flex Volunteer” will be the fourth ship under the agreement and that this vessel will be delivered to Cheniere in mid-April 2022.

The delivery is ahead of the original schedule of the third quarter of 2022.

“The ‘Flex Volunteer’ charter with for a duration of 3.5 years has therefore been extended by about 2.5 months to facilitate early delivery of the ship to Cheniere,” said Flex LNG.

“The ‘Flex Aurora’ will be the fifth ship to be delivered to Cheniere, and she will commence her 3.5-year time charter during the third quarter of 2022 according to the original agreement,” added the company.

The fleet owner, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Oslo Børs in Norway and headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, noted that Cheniere took delivery  in 2021 of the “Flex Vigilant”, the “Flex Endeavour” and the “Flex Ranger”.

These ships were supplied under time charters with a minimum duration of between 3 and 3.8 years.

All existing Flex LNG ships are large LNG carriers with a cargo capacity of between 173,400 to 174,000 cubic metres and are fitted with efficient dual-fuel, two-stroke propulsion (ME-GI/XDF).

“This makes the ships particularly ideal for large parcel, long haul transportation with the industry's lowest carbon footprint and unit transportation cost,” said Flex LNG.

The company added that the time charter party agreements remained subject to certain closing conditions in connection with the delivery and acceptance of the LNG carriers to Cheniere.