Pavilion Energy group chief executive Frederic Barnaud has said his company's efforts are focused on bringing Iberdrola’s portfolio into its operation, as it eyes making inroads in Europe.
Pavilion paid €115m ($127.4m) for the LNG assets of Spanish energy company Iberdrola in June as a step towards becoming a global player.
The company officially opened its new European headquarters in Madrid in the last week of November, Barnaud said.
Jose Simon, who was formerly head of global gas at Iberdrola, will move to Pavilion from 1 January and lead the new office as managing director for Europe.
Gas trading
A first wave of 30 to 35 staff will move to Madrid to focus on LNG and European gas trading. Barnaud said the team would expand in the next few years.
The company’s global chartering will continue to be led from Singapore, but Barnaud added: “I think we will have chartering capabilities out of Madrid, but not from day one.”
Aside from its breakbulk and LNG bunkering ambitions, Barnaud said Pavilion has five LNG carriers on long-term charter periods of more than 10 years.
These comprise two dual-fuel, diesel-electric ships, which are held in joint equity with BW LNG, and three ME-GI vessels.
The third and slightly larger ME-GI ship, a 180,000-cbm vessel which is owned by Knutsen OAS Shipping, is shifting over to Pavilion as part of Iberdrola’s LNG assets.
Barnaud said Pavilion has a baseline LNG portfolio of six million tonnes per annum of LNG and trades a similar, but slightly lower amount.
