Danish headquartered Celsius Tankers has chartered out its next four LNG carrier newbuildings to trader Gunvor's marine arm Clearlake Shipping.
Celsius confirmed it has ordered four 180,000-cbm newbuildings from Samsung Heavy Industries, which it dubbed ultra-eco LNG carriers.
The company said the latest newbuildings will be chartered to Gunvor Group subsidiary Clearlake Shipping on a long-term basis, without detailing the period.
Celsius said the vessels will be fitted with MEGA propulsion units, air lubrication systems, optimised hull shapes and be built to Lloyds’ Register class notation “EEDI-3”, meeting IMO requirements for ships built after 2025 for 30% more energy efficiency.
The company said they will offer additional improvements including lower emissions and reduced fuel consumption than its first four LNG ships.
The vessels will be delivered during 2023 and 2024.
Celsius said the four vessels, which will be sisterships to its first quartet of LNG carriers that are now all trading. Clearlake is the charterer of the first of these — the Celsius Copenhagen (built 2020). The other three are fixed to US producer Cheniere Energy.
The charters — on what are effectively Celsius' second batch of LNG newbuildings at SHI — come after several months of speculation over the ships that brokers had earmarked for business with energy major BP.
Active but silent
This year, Celsius has been very active on LNG newbuildings. Aside from the the four Gunvor newbuildings, the company has also booked another two ships at SHI and is weighing up an optional vessel slot that it is holding.
But while TradeWinds reported on the additional orders in July and August Celsius has until now been uncharacteristically silent on the additional six LNG newbuildings.
In a statement Celsius chairman Jeppe Jensen said: “We are very pleased to continue the growth of the LNG fleet and in particular to expand the relationship with Clearlake and Gunvor.
"Celsius Copenhagen, our first LNG carrier, delivered to Clearlake one year ago, and the relationship with Clearlake has worked in the best possible way."
Gunvor LNG Trading co-head Kalpesh Patel said: "We are very pleased to further expand our relationship with Celsius, as we continue to build upon our success, which has already made Gunvor the largest independent LNG trading houses.
"These vessels are among the most efficient LNG carriers ever designed. We are conscious of upcoming regulatory changes, and these vessels are in-line with Gunvor Group’s commitment to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 40% by 2025."
Patel said: "We have further committed to convert 100% of our fleet to eco-vessels by 2027."
