GasLog has put one of its tri-fuel diesel-electric (TFDE) LNG carriers up for sale as strong winter sentiment takes hold of the market.
Shipping sources told TradeWinds that offers are due in this week for the 154,984-cbm GasLog Savannah (built 2010).
A company spokesman confirmed the ship has been offered for sale but stressed that this is in line with normal day-to-day business and said there is no guarantee a sale will materialise.
The Samsung Heavy Industries-built, membrane-type ship is being made available for inspection at Sabine Pass in the US.
Peter Livanos-controlled GasLog is offering the vessel charter-free but there is potential for a charter-back deal. The company is also open to working in a joint venture with an owner looking to enter the LNG market.
No benchmark
The vessel is being marketed through Affinity (Shipping), which works closely with GasLog.
The broker talked up the ship’s worldwide trading pedigree from when it was deployed in the fleets of BG Group and later Shell.
The GasLog Savannah is also described as an ideal conversion candidate for a floating storage unit or a floating storage and regasification unit.
Mention was made of one of its eight sisterships, the 155,000-cbm GasLog Singapore (built 2010), which has been committed on a 10-year charter as an FSU to the companies developing an import terminal in Panama.
The GasLog Savannah has previously been floated as a vessel the shipowner might choose to convert into an FSRU for the Alexandroupolis LNG-import terminal project it is developing with Gastrade in Greece.
Brokers said the ship has been an “on-off” sales candidate for several years, but nothing was concluded because GasLog saw offers as being $20m below its expectations.
There have been few sales of relatively modern TFDE LNG carriers to benchmark the ship.
One shipowning source said Teekay LNG paid about $125m each for Awilco LNG’s two 156,000-cbm TFDE vessels in 2013 in a sale and leaseback deal.
Calculating backwards from the GasLog Savannah’s likely newbuilding price and accounting for its technology and size, plus a potential early delivery, he valued the ship at more than $90m.
Another shipbroker looking at the vessel put a likely price tag of $110m to $120m on it, suggesting this could prove attractive to buyers.
Both sources, and others TradeWinds contacted, expected GasLog would want to achieve between $130m and $140m.
Others suggested the sales effort was a move to get an accurate price on the ship before putting it into a conversion project.
Discussing the new sales candidate, brokers referenced GasLog’s purchase of the 153,600-cbm GasLog Chelsea (ex-STX Frontier, built 2010) in 2013 for $160m in a distressed sale from STX Pan Ocean.
Industry eyes have been locked on GasLog for some time, with questions being asked as to how it will handle its fleet, as some of the LNG carriers are redelivered from mid- to long-term charters to Shell.
Speaking last month, head of commercial Jasper Heikens said that GasLog’s steam-turbine and TFDE ships redelivering from Shell will be redeployed for spot trading, fixed for longer-term business or used as FSUs or FSRUs.
