Golar LNG saw year-on-year growth in its core business of LNG shipping, but still came up short of analysts consensus estimates for the first quarter.
But investors appear to be most concerned about delays to the Fortuna floating LNG project. Schlumberger, which had been a partner in the project, plans to back out due to delays in financing Fortuna.
The Tor Olav Troim-backed company reported a net loss of $21m for the quarter, compared to a $64.2m loss in the year earlier period. The loss per share of $0.21 was below the consensus forecast of an $0.18 per share loss.
But revenue of $66.2m showed year-on-year growth of 163%. And operating income of $6.4m was a turnaround from the $41.4m operating loss the company reported a year earlier.
Golar LNG said its LNG shipping business saw "further improvements in hire rates and round-trip economics" during the quarter. Total operating revenue net of expenses reached $41.7m during the quarter.
The company noted that strong demand early in the year resulted in spot LNG carrier rates reaching as much as $85,000 per day, but seasonally lower demand meant rates hit $45,000 per day by March.
But the main focus appears to be the "further delays to the Fortuna FLNG project and, most importantly, the winding up of the OneLNG joint venture with Schlumberger," said Evercore analyst Jonathan Chappell.
Chief executive Iain Ross says Schlumberger's withdrawal from Fortuna was a matter of the company having to reprioritise investment decisions. He says Golar plans to continue looking for financing options for the Fortuna project along with its other partners Ophir Energy and Equatorial Guinea.
"We continue to support the project and have discussions around financing it," Ross said on the company's earnings conference call.
Wells Fargo analyst Michael Webber says other positive developments were noted by Golar on the call. Its Hilli Episeyo is closing in on commercial acceptance in the coming days. Golar is also progressing with front-end engineering studies on the Tortue project with BP.
