John Fredriksen-controlled Flex LNG has fixed one of its trading vessels for up to two years in a contract with Spanish utility Endesa.
The 174,000-cbm Flex Ranger (built 2018) will start a firm 12-month charter with Endesa in June 2020, after its contract expires with the utility's Italian parent Enel.
The direct continuation deal includes an option to extend the hire by an additional 12 months.
Endesa is a leading company in the Spanish electricity sector and the second largest operator in the Portuguese market as well as a subsidiary of Enel Group.
Flex LNG Management chief executive Oystein Kalleklev said: “This charter party adds additional revenue backlog to a first class charter in line with our communicated strategy.”
Kalleklev said: “Endesa sources LNG from Corpus Christi [US liquefaction project] and modern ships fits very well with this trade as cargoes are large and tonne mile can be high particularly if the cargoes ends up in Asia.
The CEO said Flex has five ships for delivery in mid-2020, adding that this contract provides the company with "added revenue visibility at a time we are almost doubling the number of ships on the water.
“Given the fact that we have a brand new fleet of the latest generation ships we have during the last year or so built a very experienced technical team in order to attract longer term business opportunities for our ships," he said.
Last month Flex announced that it had fixed one of its 173,400-cbm newbuildings, which is to be named Flex Artemis, to trader Gunvor for up to 10 years.
The ship is due to start the five firm years of the charter period on its delivery from shipyard DSME in August 2020.
Flex has taken delivery of six of its 13 LNG carriers.
Aside from Flex Ranger, the 173,400-cbm Flex Enterprise (built 2018) has been reported fixed to energy major Chevron.
The other four trading vessels are operating in the spot market or on charter-hires of less than 12 months.
Flex is due to take delivery of seven newbuildings in the period through to mid-2021, with the third of these, Flex Artemis being the ship fixed to Gunvor.
