Energy major BP has fixed five LNG carriers on multi-year deals as it makes its bid to secure newbuilding tonnage in a market that brokers say is almost sold out of modern two-stroke vessels from independent owners in 2022.
Shipping sources watching the major said BW LNG has fixed one of its two 2022-delivering, and apparently speculatively-ordered, LNG newbuildings to BP.
They said the company has committed its vessel for three years at a rate in the mid-$80,000-per-day range. There are believed to be several multi-year options attached to the deal.
BW has two vessels on order at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering which are listed as scheduled for handover in June and September.
The company declined to comment on the reports.
Newbuildings nabbed
Brokers also identify two Flex LNG ships — the 173,400-cbm Flex Courageous (built 2019) and Flex Resolute (built 2020) — as being fixed by BP.
The duo are reported chartered out to BP at rates in the high $80,000-per-day range.
On 1 November Flex LNG announced it had agreed two time-charter deals with an energy major for the two ships without naming the charterer.
Flex said the contracts are for a minimum of three years with the charterers having the option to extend the hire by up to four years, in a pair of two-year periods. The vessels will start their new employment in the first quarter of 2022.
Informed sources said Celsius locked in its ships at about $73,000 per day. But they pointed out that these vessels are not for relatively prompt delivery dates, as with the BW and Flex ships, but as due for handovers in 2024.
There is also speculation that Celsius may have locked in slightly longer period hire on the ships. But the details have yet to emerge.
Term tonnage wanted
Brokers are reporting ongoing strong enquiry for term business on LNG carriers.
Shipbroker Affinity (Shipping)'s LNG team said on Friday, in an apparent reference to the recent BP and Celsius deals: "The outlook for available vessels from independent owners is thin for the balance of 2022 so we expect bullish term ideas on the back of this, in particular given the recent conclusion of four modern two-strokes fixed on mid-long term commitments."
Compared to its rivals like energy major Shell, BP has been relatively late to the party in locking in new LNG tonnage.
Brokers point to the ships the major is likely to need to lift the cargoes it wants to ship from the ENI-led Coral South FLNG Project off Mozambique where it has signed up to buy all of the offtake under a 20-year deal.
On Monday, a naming and sailaway ceremony was held for the floating LNG (FLNG) production unit, the 3.4-million tonnes per annum Coral-Sul FLNG, which was contracted at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea under a $2.5bn deal to serve this project.
The huge LNG floater is due to be towed away this year with production set to start up in the second half of 2022.
