LNG

June 16 (LNGJ) - LNG fleet owner GasLog Partners LP has signed two new time- charter agreements with major oil and gas companies Royal Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies. The deals include a one-year charter for the 155,000 cubic metres capacity “GasLog Sydney” with a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, beginning this week, as well as an approximately eight-month charter with Shell for the “Solaris”, also a vessel with 155,000 cubic metres of capacity and beginning immediately.

   “I am very pleased to announce these new charters with global energy majors,” said Paul Wogan, Chief Executive of GasLog Partners. “The agreements are at fixed daily rates of hire at returns in line with the historic long-term average, underscoring the strengthening LNG carrier spot market observed so far this year,” added Wogan.

GasLog Ltd, the LNG carrier fleet owner with 36 ships split with its US affiliate GasLog Partners, posted a first-quarter 2020 loss as LNG demand faced multiple headwinds.

GasLog Ltd., the LNG fleet owner based in the Greek port of Piraeus with a total fleet of 35 vessels split with its US affiliate, has taken delivery of its latest carrier built in South Korea and chartered to UK utility Centrica plc.

The 180,000 cubic metres capacity vessel, named “GasLog Windsor”, was constructed at Samsung Heavy Industries.  It has X-DF propulsion, a combination of gas and diesel. and a Mark III Flex containment system from French technology firm GTT.

“Despite the industrial disruption in South Korea caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, the vessel was delivered on time and on budget,” said GasLog.

Centrica has US volumes from the US Gulf Coast and regasification capacity at the UK Isle of Grain terminal, located southeast of London. The UK utility also has cargoes booked from the Mozambique LNG project.

The company gave an operational update and said they remained focused on securing the health and safety of their employees, while also ensuring safe and reliable operations for their customers and the global natural gas supply chain.

As regards its fleet numbers, 19 carriers are owned by GasLog, 13 on the water and six on order, while one has been sold to a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. of Japan and leased back to GasLog under a long-term charter.

The remaining 15 LNG carriers are owned by Nasdaq-listed GasLog Partners.

During the past two month or so, GasLog said its operational activity has been 100 percent.

GasLog and GasLog Partners have also accelerate opportunistically their dry-docking schedules during the slowdown of LNG trade in February and March.

“Four dry-dockings will have been completed by mid-April, all of which are expected to be on time and within budget, including the installation of ballast water treatment systems,” said GasLog.

The charter parties for all of the Group’s term-chartered vessels remain in effect with revenues as per the contract terms.

“During the first quarter of 2020, the Group’s tri-fuel diesel electric vessels operating in the spot and short-term market delivered time charter equivalent earnings of around $44,000 per day,” said GasLog.
“Presently, all of the Group’s vessels operating in the spot and short-term market that are not undergoing dry-dockings are on charters through to at least May,” it added.

Gaslog noted that there has been a marked increase in activity in the spot and short-term market in recent weeks, primarily driven by a resumption in industrial activity in China.

“Against a backdrop of unprecedented global uncertainty, I am very proud of the dedication of all our employees, whose health and safety remains our first priority,” said Paul Wogan, Chief Executive.

“I especially thank our seafarers for their commitment and professionalism while apart from their families and friends,” stated Wogan.

The “GasLog Windsor” is immediately delivered into an attractive seven-year charter to Centrica.

“This vessel is the first of seven newbuildings due to be delivered by the third quarter of 2021,” said GasLog.

“On a fully delivered basis, 60 percent of GasLog’s directly owned fleet will be modern X-DF vessels on multi-year term charters,” it added.

GasLog Ltd., the LNG carrier fleet owner with 19 vessels and with another 15 ships held by its US affiliate GasLog Partners, reported annual and quarterly losses as it started cost-cutting measures by moving its headquarters to the Greek port of Piraeus from Monaco and wrote-down some asset values.

GasLog posted a fourth-quarter loss of $119.9 million versus a profit of $30.3M in the same quarter of 2018.

For the year, GasLog’s losses came to $114.6M compared with a profit of $126.4M in 2018.

Annual revenues rose to $668.8M from $618.3M in the previous year, while fourth-quarter revenues slipped to $182.2M from $188.6M in the prior-year quarter.

“GasLog implemented a plan to relocate GasLog’s senior management and more of its employees to the Piraeus, Greece office, to enhance execution and efficiency and to reduce overheads,” said the company.

At the same time, the carrier operator as of December 31, 2019, recognized an impairment loss of $162.1M on its six steam-turbine propulsion vessels built in 2006 and 2007, including five US GasLog Partners LP vessels and one GasLog directly-owned vessel, due to negative market conditions.

Paul Wogan, Chief Executive, said he was pleased with the performance of the company in 2019.

“It represented another year of excellent execution for GasLog. We took delivery of two newbuild LNG carriers and signed long-term charters with the principal LNG shipping entity of JERA Co. (Japan) and a subsidiary of Endesa SA (Spain), both new customers for GasLog,” said Wogan.

“We also chartered two on-the-water vessels to Gunvor Group Ltd. and secured up to 10 years employment for one of our vessels as a floating storage unit,” added the CEO.

Wogan noted that the company also successfully completed a new debt facility for its newbuild deliveries in 2020 and 2021.

GasLog signed an export credit agency-backed debt financing facility in December 2019 for $1.05 billion with 12 international banks.

The newbuild facility covers the balance due to the shipyard on delivery and consequently the final instalments of the seven newbuild are fully funded.

Five of these seven ships are scheduled to deliver from the yards into firm multi-year charters in 2020 and the remaining two into firm multi-year charters in 2021. 

The company said one of its charters was for 10 years for one TFDE ship to act as a Floating Storage Unit for a power project being developed in Panama.

GasLog said that while spot rates for LNG carriers had improved in 2018 and 2019 compared to prior years, the term charter market for on-the-water vessels has not developed as anticipated, resulting in reduced expectations for future vessel utilization and earnings.

The company said this was particularly the case for the five steam vessels owned by GasLog Partners and one owned by GasLog after the expiry of their current term charters.

“As we continue to execute on our efficiency improvements and cost reductions, we will continue to look for further opportunities to enhance shareholder returns, on top of the special dividends paid in 2018 and 2019,” said Wogan.

GasLog said that in the LNG shipping spot market, tri-fuel diesel electric vessel headline rates, as reported by brokers averaged $70,000 per day in 2019, a 23 percent decrease on 2018 levels. 

“Low gas prices during much of 2019 limited the arbitrage opportunities for transporting LNG between the Atlantic and Pacific basins,” said the company.

“However, the market balance remains tight, as evidenced by the quick run up in TFDE rates in the fourth quarter of 2019 when they reached a peak of $140,000 per day in November, following a marked decrease in spot ship availability,” added GasLog.

“While headline spot rates in the first quarter of 2020 to date have fallen from their peaks in the fourth quarter of 2019, current headline rates are in line with or above the comparable dates of recent years,” it stated.

GasLog said that brokers currently assess headline spot rates for TFDE and Steam LNG carriers at $65,000 per day and $43,500 per day respectively. 

GasLog Ltd., the Monaco-based LNG carrier fleet owner with 19 vessels and with another 15 ships held by its US affiliate GasLog Partners, said it signed an export credit agency-backed debt financing facility of $1.05 billion with 12 international banks for its current newbuilding programme.

GasLog Ltd, the Monaco-based LNG fleet owner and operator with 19 vessels and with another 15 ships held by its US affiliate GasLog Partners, reported that the forecast tightening of the LNG shipping market had come to pass with increasing US output and the seasonal uptick in demand for natural gas.

GasLog Ltd has reported a loss of $10.5 mill on revenues of $154.3 mill for the second quarter of this year.

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.

GasLog, the US-listed and Monaco-based shipping line whose fleet numbers 27 LNG carriers, has told investors in New York that the LNG shipping market was evolving with more fragmentation, inter-basin trading and value maximization helping to increase shipping intensity.

March 12 (LNG) - GasLog, the Monaco-based LNG shipping company with a fleet of 27 LNG carriers including 22 on the water and five on order, has signed a contract for another newbuild with Samsung Heavy Industries of South Korea. GasLog said the 180,000 cubic metres capacity vessel was scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2020 and is currently unchartered. “Given that the outlook for LNG shipping demand remains robust, and with increasing evidence that newbuild prices are starting to rise, we have moved to lock in a very attractive price for our second newbuild order in 2018,” said Paul Wogan, Chief Executive of GasLog. “We remain confident that the unit freight cost advantage offered by the latest generation vessels will make this ship highly attractive,” he added.