Repsol has received well over 20 offers from shipowners for a single LNG carrier it wants to take on long-term charter.
Bids were due in on 24 March from owners able to supply either a newbuilding or an existing ship no older than three years for handover in the Atlantic basin. Newbuildings can include ships still under construction and those delivering from a shipyard.
Brokers gave different figures on the number of offers. One quoted a figure of 24 bids, while another said there were 27.
Repsol specified a two-stroke, membrane-type LNG carrier of between 173,000 cbm and 180,000 cbm for delivery between the third quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.
The Spanish energy company is offering a 10-year charter on the vessel, with owners able to offer in on firm and optional splits or charter-hire extension periods. Repsol requested bid validity until 1 May.
Shipyards in South Korea and China, whose orderbooks for 2023 delivery dates are already bulging, saw a flurry of interest from owners in the wake of the enquiry being floated. But some of those working on the business pointed to the short time owners were given to submit offers and suggested that the tender could also be something of a price-checking exercise.
Repsol is believed to need the vessel to ship new US and Russian volumes it has contracted to buy on a long-term basis.
In 2018, Repsol signed a 20-year deal with US liquefaction developer Venture Global LNG to buy 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG from its under-construction Calcasieu Pass export facility in Louisiana on a free-on-board basis.
Venture Global LNG indicated in March that its fast-track modular construction has meant the project could export first test cargoes in the fourth quarter of this year, 12 months earlier than a planned start-up.
In 2019, Repsol signed a 15-year deal to take 1 mtpa from Novatek, including the Russian company’s Arctic LNG 2 project.
Repsol had been expected to come to the market for shipping in 2019.
But this got pushed into 2020 and the requirement only emerged this year.
