Golar LNG Ltd. has secured an option to acquire a 148,000-cu m Moss-design LNG carrier for a 3.5-million tonne/year (tpy) MKII floating LNG (FLNG) conversion. The company reports “significant progress” having been made with the conversion shipyard, procurement of long lead items, and financing as well as “strong client engagement…for potential deployment.”
The LNG carrier will cost $78 million and the converted vessel would be Golar’s third FLNG, following Hilli and Gimi. Golar expects delivery in 2025.
Conversion of the 2.5-million tpy FLNG Gimi for its 20-year contract with bp PLC in developing Greater Tortue Ahmeyim offshore Mauritania and Senegal was 92% technically complete as of Feb. 12, 2023, with the vessel on track for a first-half 2023 sail away. The bp-owned floating production, storage, and offloading vessel which needs to be commissioned ahead of Gimi is now in Singapore, having left COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co. Ltd.’s Qidong, China, yard last month en route to West Africa (OGJ Online, Feb. 27, 2023). It is expected to arrive on station second-quarter 2023.
Golar is in talks with prospective clients for a potential redeployment of the 2.4-million tpy FLNG Hilli once its current contract with Perenco SA and Cameroon’s state oil firm Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures offshore Cameroon ends in July 2026. On Feb. 6, 2023, Golar agreed to acquire New Fortress Energy (NFE) Inc.’s interest in Hilli for the return of 4.1 million NFE shares and $100 million in cash.
A combination of upstream technical issues and maintenance caused Hilli’s 2022 LNG production to fall 3.5% below the annually contracted 1.4-million tpy. The issues that resulted in the reduced production were resolved in fourth-quarter 2022 and FLNG Hilli has been producing to schedule since, Golar said.
Golar reported 2022 net income of $788 million, a 90% increase from the $414 million it earned in 2021.
