John Fredriksen's Flex LNG has found period work for the second of its operational LNG carriers.
It said that a time-charter agreement has been signed with Enel Trade, part of multinational Enel Group, for 12 months, starting in the second half of 2019.
Enel also has the option to extend the contract by an additional 12 months.
Flex intends to use the 173,400-cbm Flex Enterprise (built 2018) for the deal.
But it has the option to nominate a sistership.
CEO Jonathan Cook said: "We are pleased to announce a time-charter agreement with Enel for one of our new MEGI vessels and we look forward to working closely with them throughout the charter period.
"This charter is in line with our strategy of adding incremental revenue as the market for LNG shipping continues to improve and provides important earnings visibility for the company."
Analysts at DNB Markets suggest the rate is in the mid $80,000s per day, which is above the $80,000 per day it had forecast for the vessel and the $60,000 per day secured by the first Flex newbuilding.
"In our view the market is pricing in a strong close towards the end of the decade," DNB Markets said.
Two ships locked away
Oslo-listed Flex has been in the process of finding work for its initial newbuilding haul.
In December last year, the company locked away the first of six vessels it had on order by signing a deal with Uniper Global Commodities ex-yard for a period of 15 to 18 months.
Uniper was already a key client for Flex after the shipowner fixed existing tonnage to the trader, which it had taken in to get experience and market exposure before its own newbuildings emerged.
Flex boasts an LNG fleet of six M-type, electronically controlled, gas-injection (ME-GI) newbuildings, which are due to be delivered between the start of this year and August 2019.
The first two are in service.
TradeWinds reported earlier this year that four additional LNG carrier newbuilding berths have been secured by Fredriksen interests for Flex - at Hyundai Heavy and DSME.
