LNG

Avenir LNG, the London-headquartered global energy supplier for small-scale projects and gas carriers, has signed a Time Charter Party with Vitol International Shipping, a unit of the global commodities company.

Stolt-Nielsen, the London-headquartered Norwegian company with terminal, shipping and Avenir LNG project interests, reported stable first-quarter earnings amid US disruptions and said the LNG import terminal on the Italian island of Sardinia would come on line in May.

Belgian shipping company Exmar, owner of the “Tango FLNG” barge last deployed in Argentina and now up for re-charter, reported annual gross cash flow from operations of US$239.9 million, including a $150M settlement fee paid by Argentine energy company YPF for the “Tango FLNG” charter cancellation.

Exmar said it was getting its finances back on track after payments from YPS and financing deals for other parts of its fleet.

Exmar, based in the port of Antwerp, said it still posted a loss of $7.8M for its operating result versus a profit of $14.5M in 2019.

“Earnings were negatively impacted by an impairment of $28.5M on older vessels,” explained Exmar.

“The year 2020 will be remembered as being dominated by the unprecedented pandemic which distorted economic activities worldwide and made big impacts on daily lives. The reality is that overall, seaborne gas markets fared relatively well,” stated Exmar.

Exmar’s FLNG vessel, built at the Chinese Wison shipyard in Nantong, China, formally started its operations at Bahia Blanca port in Argentina in mid-2019 and a 10-year charter term began in September 2019.

The Belgian company's FLNG barge has production capacity of around 500,000 tonnes per annum. 

“Since the effective termination of the contract with YPF in October 2020, marketing is in full swing and, given its status as a fully-proven facility, there is a healthy interest from the market for a ‘Tango FLNG’ redeployment,” said Exmar.

“The fact that the start of 2021 saw increased price levels of oil and gas globally will certainly benefit the opportunities for reactivation,” it stated.

The company added that the Exmar LNG carrier “Excalibur” was under a time-charter contract until early 2022.

Exmar also noted some highlights at the end of 2020 and the start of 2021, including the $40M replenishment a debt agreement with Bank of China and the refinancing of a bank facility with Nordea bank of Finland for Exmar’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) midsize fleet for an amount of $310M, of which $290M has been drawn.

Additionally, Exmar said that at the start of the first quarter of 2021 it signed lease financing for two Very Large Gas Carriers (VLGCs) under construction.

Exmar said its average time-charter equivalent rates for the midsize (38,115 cubic metres capacity) LPG fleet rose to $21,680 per day from $18,587 per day in 2019.

For VLGCs (83,300 cbm) it was $30,605 per day, up from $28,527 per day in the previous year.

Pressurized vessel (5,000 cbm) rates came to $7,865 versus $8,861 in 2019.

“Exmar will take delivery of two LPG-fuelled 88,000 cbm VLGC newbuildings, to be named ‘Flanders Innovation’ and ‘Flanders Pioneer’, in the second and third quarter of 2021 that will enter into a long-term time-charter to Equinor ASA (Norway),” said the company.

“These vessels were the first VLGCs ordered at the time with dual-fuel engines able to burn LPG on the main engine, substantially reducing emissions and underlining Exmar’s continued and consistent ability to innovate,” added Exmar.

Avenir LNG Ltd, a company owned by Norwegian shipping and infrastructure companies, has delivered its first dual-purpose liquefied natural gas bunkering and supply vessel (LBV), the “Avenir Advantage”, to the Future Horizon joint venture comprising Malaysia’s MISC Group and Avenir.

The ship was constructed by Keppel Offshore and Marine at the Nantong Shipyard in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.

“With the delivery of the ‘Avenir Advantage’, Future Horizon is the first dedicated LBV commercial operator in Southeast Asia,” said Avenir

Additionally, Malaysian energy company Petronas has chartered the “Avenir Advantage” from Future Horizon for a period of three years.

“Following her maiden voyage from China, the ‘Avenir Advantage’ has successfully completed the commissioning of the LNG re-loading equipment on the ‘FSU Tenaga Satu’ and the first LNG bunkering of the ‘SIEM Aristotle’ car carrier,” explained Avenir

The “Avenir Advantage” will supply the region’s LNG-fuelled vessels and small-scale LNG projects.

“We are very proud to deliver the first dedicated LNG bunker vessel in Southeast Asia,” said Milorad Doljanin, Chief Executive of Avenir

“With the backing of Petronas’s LNG supply infrastructure, LNG is undeniably a reliable and cost-effective solution to meeting the sulphur cap regulations set by the International Maritime Organization in 2020,” added Doljanin.

“Further to the provision of LNG as a bunker fuel, the delivery of the ‘Avenir Advantage’ means that Petronas now has the infrastructure in place to support the rapid deployment of small-scale supply chains and we are proud to be working with Petronas as envisaged under our previously announced arrangements,” he explained

Avenir LNG is a joint venture owned by London-based Norwegian shipping and storage company Stolt-Nielsen and its peer fleet owners and project companies, Höegh LNG and Golar LNG.

The “Avenir Advantage” is the first of two ships ordered from the Keppel Nantong shipyard.

Each vessel has a cargo capacity of 7,500 cubic metres capacity with two Type-C storage tanks.

Stolt-Nielsen started up small-scale LNG sector firm Avenir in 2015 and its two newer investors, Golar and Höegh, each have 22.5 percent of Avenir to Stolt-Nielsen’s 45 percent.

The experienced shipping partners of Avenir are aiming to build up the market in small-scale LNG supply to off-grid industry for power generation and transportation fuel, as well as providing infrastructure to support the development of LNG as a marine fuel.

Avenir additionally has an 80 percent stake in a small-scale LNG import project company Higas on the Italian island of Sardinia, while the local partners are Gas & Heat and CPL Concordia, each holding 10 percent of the Sardinia venture.

Avenir LNG Ltd, a company owned by Norwegian shipping and infrastructure companies, has taken delivery of its first dual-purpose liquefied natural gas bunkering and supply vessel (LBV), the “Avenir Advantage”.

Wison Offshore and Marine, the owner of the Chinese shipyard at Nantong in Jiangsu province, held a ground-breaking ceremony for work to start on the modernization of the yard’s LNG shipbuilding capability as part of a national high-tech industrial development zone.

Avenir LNG, a company owned by Norwegian shipping and infrastructure companies, is making progress on the development of Italy’s first small-scale terminal at the Port of Oristano on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Exmar, the Belgian shipping company with more than 40 vessels in its fleet now mostly focused on the liquefied petroleum gas business, said the outbreak of the coronavirus in China has caused further delays in the release by the Bank of China of $40 million under the “Tango FLNG” loan facility. 

Exmar, which has undergone financial troubles over the past couple of years, had previously said the China Export Credit Insurance Corp. had approved the release of around $40 million from a debt service reserve account under the “Tango FLNG” loan conditions.

The “Tango FLNG” vessel is chartered to Argentina and has exported three cargoes from the port of Bahia Blanca where it produces LNG from pipeline feed-gas.

The vessel was built at the Chinese Wison shipyard in Nantong and delivered to Exmar in 2017. It had initially been destined for a project in Colombia in South America that was cancelled.

Exmar said it was awaiting for the offices of the Chinese authorities to officially re-open and the tranche of money to be paid.

The vessel, chartered by Argentine energy company YPF, formally started its operations in June 2019 and the 10-year charter term began in September 2019.

The “Tango FLNG” production barge can produce around 500,000 tonnes per annum of LNG for domestic sale or export.

Exmar continues to manage 10 LNG floating storage and regasification units, though is not directly involved in regasification projects with former partner Excelerate Energy of the US.

Exmar added in its financial update that under the ongoing arbitration procedure on an FSRU barge with commodities group Gunvor, the financing of the asset could not be completed.

“Meanwhile Exmar obtained a further extension of its bridge loans until the end of February and of certain other capital expenditure until mid-March,” explained the Antwerp-based company.

Exmar is still caught up in a legal dispute with Gunvor over an FSRU barge that was also delivered from the Wison Nantong shipyard in China in 2017.

The Exmar barge with 25,000 cubic metres capacity was the subject of a 10-year Charter to Gunvor signed in October 2018.

Gunvor had been expecting to deploy the barge in Bangladesh. Then the Asian nation cancelled planned small-scale projects to concentrate on a larger venture.

Exmar has also made executive changes in January 2020 as it tries to improve finances after several setbacks to meet the challenges of the year ahead.

Among the changes, it has named Francis Mottrie in the new position of Deputy Chief Executive to work along Nicolas Saverys, the Group CEO.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French technology firm for designs of systems for the maritime transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas, said it signed a technical and licensing agreement with Chinese shipbuilder Wison Offshore and Marine for a range of LNG vessels.

Exmar, the Belgian shipping line with floating liquefied natural gas interests, including the “Tango FLNG” production hull now deployed at the Argentine port of Bahia Blanca, has recorded a pre-tax loss as its business is restructured.