Belgium's Exmar has disclosed that trader Gunvor Group paid it $56.8m following an arbitration in a floating storage and regasification barge charter dispute earlier this year.
The payment will be timely as the company decides how to tackle a looming NOK 650m ($75m) bond maturing in 2022.
In May, Exmar had said an arbitration panel ruled in its favour in a row involving Gunvor's hire of Exmar's 25,000-cbm FSRU S188 (built 2017).
As a result, Gunvor then terminated the charter and paid a termination fee equal to two years of charter hire, but the amount had not been disclosed until now.
The barge became commercially available at the end of June.
"Marketing of the unit with ongoing technical validation for several opportunities identified has commenced immediately," Exmar said.
Claim rejected
The interim award in London rejected Gunvor's claim on two preliminary issues.
The details have never been made public due to strict confidentiality clauses in the charter and the arbitration process.
Exmar had described the arbitration as ongoing in May.
Gunvor began the proceedings in 2019.
The trading giant had a 10-year charter in place for the barge-based FSRU for use in Bangladesh, but had "raised some legal arguments that could lead to arbitration", the Belgian company had earlier warned.
Exmar continues to receive payments from Argentinian charterer YPF as part of a $150m settlement in 2020 of the early termination of a charter for the floating liquefaction vessel Tango FLNG.
More cash coming
Another $61m is outstanding after the owner banked $48.7m in the first half of this year.
The company also said it is considering how to pay off the NOK 650m bond expiring in May next year.
"Management is currently assessing and discussing several potential scenarios to partially or fully refinance or repay the outstanding debt and is confident about a positive outcome," Exmar said.
In addition, the shipowner is also monitoring covenant compliance after 2021 depending on when the S188 and Tango FLNG will start operating again.
"The board is confident that management will be able to maintain sufficient liquidities to meet its commitments," the company said.
