Belgian gas shipowner and infrastructure provider Exmar has cleared its loans after selling its barge-based floating LNG (FLNG) production unit to Italian energy company Eni for deployment in the Republic of Congo.
Announcing its third quarter results the company said Exmar said it received $646.4m on the close of the transaction on the sale of the FLNG unit on 26 August.
Ebitda and Ebit were positively impacted by a $315.7m gain on the sale, Exmar said.
The company said the proceeds from the sale of Tango FLNG were partially used to repay its outstanding loan to the Bank of China which triggered the repayment and termination of another credit facility.
As a result, as of 30 September 2022 “Exmar is net debt free,” the company said.
Exmar reported a huge turnaround in its third results for the first nine months of 2022, up over 14-fold at $317.4m from $21.9m a year earlier.
But revenue fell for the period dropped to $95.6m from $136.1m in 2021.
Exmar said revenue in its infrastructure segment fell by $43.5m against the $87.3m figure for 2021 as this included an early termination fee of $56.8m and the charter income from a previous contract.
This relates to Exmar’s 25,000-cbm, barge-based floating storage and regasification unit FSRU S188 (built 2017).
The mini-FSRU was chartered to Gasunie LNG Holdings in March and renamed Eemshaven LNG. Exmar said it arrived at its location in Eesmhaven in October 2022 and is “currently preparing for commissioning and the start of LNG operations”.
Hire income on the FSRU started in August, the company said.
Exmar highlighted that as part of Eni’s Congo FLNG project, it has agreed to a 10-year charter deal on its 138,000-cbm steam turbine LNG carrier Excalibur (built 2002) with the Italian company.
Excalibur will be converted into a floating storage unit for the project.
LNG production capacity: 500,000 tonnes per annum
LNG storage: 16,100 cbm
Storage tanks: Type-C
Draught: 5.4 metres
LOA: 144 metres
Beam: 32 metres
Depth: 20 metres
Liquefaction technology: Black & Veatch Prico SMR
Shipbuilder: Wison Offshore & Marine
Exmar, which originally ordered the vessel, acquired the outstanding 50% share in Excalibur from the vessel’s joint venture partner Seapeak.
The ship was delivered to Eni in October.
Exmar said it also concluded a contract with Eni for engineering services relating to the project.
The company added that its engineering subsidiaries continue to see “high utilisation of project management and engineering services supporting various contracts for the development and implementation of different deep-water offshore developments, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Exmar dialled up the revenue from its shipping sector during the nine months by $6.5m.
The company said this was largely due to the entry of two VLGCs into the fleet but partly offset by the unemployment of Excalibur.
In August the Exmar-Seapeak joint venture ordered two enlarged 46,000 m3 midsize LPG and ammonia carriers with dual fuel LPG propulsion. The deal included an option for two more vessels with the possibility to have them built as ammonia-fuelled vessels.
Speaking about the midsize gas carrier segment, of which it has been a specialist, Exmar said: “We observe an increase in LPG production, especially in the USA, and a replacement of the loss of Russian export of ammonia by longer ton mile sourced ammonia from Middle East and Far East.
“For these reasons, we are optimistic for 2023 even with an order book of about 30% of the global fleet entering the market.”
