US-listed Excelerate Energy aims to use the LNG carrier it plans to buy in 2025 for trading its own volumes while it prepares the vessel for conversion into a floating storage and regasification unit.
Answering analysts’ questions on a results call, Excelerate chief operating David Liner said that by having the asset in 2025, the company can “start the clock” on the engineering work and ordering of long-lead items it needs for the conversion job.
He the conversion would likely take around one year but would be vessel and specification-dependent. But Liner said he is not comfortable speaking about the timeline until the company gets the vessel.
This compares to around three to three-and-a-half years for an FSRU newbuilding.
Liner said the company expects the FSRU conversion to be a versatile vessel which could go into many locations but he said it would be targeted at smaller send-out customers.
He said the beauty of the project is: “We get to trade that asset while we are preparing for the conversion.”
Excelerate executive vice president and chief commercial officer Oliver Simpson said the new mid-term LNG volumes the company is buying in the Atlantic, which start in the fourth quarter, allows the company to acquire the vessel which it can use towards its project pipeline.
President and chief executive Steven Kobos moved to reassure on Bangladesh where Excelerate has two FSRUs in operation but where talk has been circulating on the cancellation of a third regas project for the country which the regas specialist had been pursuing.
The chief highlighted that he had visited the country and met with Bangladesh chief adviser Muhammad Yunus and other government officials.
He said they assured him that Excelerate’s contracts with buyer PetroBangla are secure and the discussions revealed that there is appetite for more foreign investment in the country.
Kobos said the fundamentals that support many of these prospective LNG projects remain the same. “Bangladesh needs more natural gas,” he said. “We look forward to supporting the government on the development of future energy projects when they are ready to advance those initiatives,” he said.
The CEO said Excelerate’s existing two FSRUs in Bangladesh currently deliver about 34% of the country’s natural gas supply. “We are a long-term committed partner to Bangladesh,” he added.
Kobos said Excelerate is “the leader in FSRUs”.
He revealed that the company is currently in commercial discussions to install two reliquefaction units to vessels in its fleet, following discussions with customers.
But he said the company does not want to rely on one asset class for getting LNG to customers that want it and will look at other solutions.
Excelerate currently operates 11 FSRUs, including one as-yet-uncommitted newbuilding which delivers in 2026.
Chief financial officer Dana Armstrong said the company will dry-dock two of its FSRUs in the second half of 2025, which will see the vessels offhire for periods of between 40 and 50 days. She did not name the vessels.
