Hoegh LNG Holdings is pursuing fresh floating storage and regasification unit business in an active market where it is sold out on FSRUs bar one conversion candidate vessel.
The Norwegian LNG regasification specialist said the FSRU market continues to be busy, with projects in the execution and development stages.
It said five FSRUs are expected to be installed in Europe in 2024 and three elsewhere.
Hoegh LNG said that at the end of March, the global FSRU fleet stood at 47 units, excluding four barge-based units with limited storage and gas send-out capacity.
It said only one existing FSRU is currently available for prompt delivery.
There are two FSRUs on order, with one delivering in 2026 not yet committed.
“The demand for FSRUs is expected to remain strong,” the company said.
“While Hoegh LNG has secured long-term contracts for its entire fleet of FSRUs, the business development team is in active dialogue with several potential new projects looking for FSRU capacity.”
In April, TradeWinds named Hoegh LNG as one of two parties — the other being Mitsui OSK Lines — shortlisted for Singapore LNG’s FSRU requirement.
The company described business development activity as “high”.
“There is a strong focus on developing the Zeeland Energy terminal in Vlissingen, Netherlands with our project partner VTTI,” it said. This FSRU-based terminal is due for start-up in the second half of 2027.
The company’s 170,000-cbm FSRU Hoegh Giant (built 2017) arrived off Santos in Brazil in late February and has completed commissioning in preparation for the start of regasification operations.
In May, Hoegh LNG agreed with Australian Industrial Energy that the 170,000-cbm FSRU Hoegh Galleon (built 2019), which is allocated to AIE’s project, will be chartered out to EGAS for deployment to Egypt from June 2024 to February 2026.
The 160,000-cbm LNG carrier Hoegh Gandria (ex-Golar Seal, built 2013), which the company bought in 2023 as a potential FSRU conversion candidate, is employed on a five-month contract and is due to come offhire in August.
Hoegh LNG is continuing to pursue its clean energy business under which it is developing a hybrid FSRU concept, floating ammonia-to-hydrogen terminals and a floating carbon capture and storage value chain.
It said import terminal opportunities are “under development” based on its floating concepts.
Hoegh LNG Holdings’ first-quarter profit shrank to $19.7m from $34.1m in the same period a year ago.
Total income slipped to $128.6m from $137.4m in the first three months of 2023.
Hoegh LNG operates a fleet of 10 FSRUs and three LNG carriers. It said its average remaining contract length per vessel was 7.5 years at the end of March, down from 7.8 years at the end of December 2023.
