Floating LNG-refocused Golar LNG’s Cameroon-based FLNG unit has produced and offloaded a 100th cargo.
Giving the unit its full name, Golar said the Hilli Episeyo — more frequently referred to as Hilli and with a capacity of 2.4 million tonnes per annum — offloaded its 100th LNG cargo on Saturday.
The shipment was loaded into the 173,400-cbm Energy Integrity (built 2021), which is listed as on charter to SEFE Marketing & Trading, formerly an arm of Gazprom, the sole offtaker from the LNG floater.
Golar said the Hilli — Hilli Episeyo combines the LNG carrier’s original name and the local word for “hope” — is the world’s first LNG carrier-to-FLNG conversion.
The company said it made Cameroon the world’s 20th LNG exporting nation in 2018.
To date, the FLNG unit would appear to have produced the most cargoes than all of the other five currently operational LNG floaters worldwide.
“[The] Hilli has maintained market-leading commercial uptime since her contract start-up,” Golar said.
Company chief executive Karl-Fredrik Staubo described what he said is the “unrivalled track record” of the pioneering vessel as a “significant achievement, and a testimony to the near 5.5 years of close and constructive cooperation between Golar, Perenco and the government of Cameroon”
But the unit is not producing at full capacity due to a lack of feedgas. Most recently, Golar has begun to talk about a possible redeployment of the Hilli when its contract with charterer Perenco ends in July 2026.
In Monday’s announcement, Staubo said: “We see the proven capabilities of FLNG as increasingly valuable in today’s energy market, enabling monetisation of associated and stranded gas reserves, and catering to a world dependent on energy diversification for energy security.”
Golar is currently waiting to deliver its second LNG carrier-to-FLNG unit conversion — the Gimi — to BP’s Greater Tortue project in Mauritania and Senegal. The unit is undergoing final works and trials in Singapore and is scheduled to leave this month. However, project delays could alter this.
