Global Energy Ventures (GEV) has again postponed its potential $1.2bn order for compressed natural gas (CNG) carriers.
The Australian company has a letter of intent (LOI) with Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore to build four firm Optimum 200 ships, with four options.
The Sydney-listed outfit said on Tuesday it has extended the LOI for a further six months to 31 December.
The contract price of between $135m and $140m per vessel is unchanged and the delivery schedule remains 30 months.
The two sides have not been idle, however. They have developed two new loading systems for the ships — submerged turret loading (STL) and single anchor loading (SAL). ensuring both onshore and offshore capability.
Martin Carolan, GEV's executive director of corporate and finance, told TradeWinds: "We are working on a programme that could see a decision by the end of 2020. This might still be subject to a final shipping contract."
The timelines of the upstream companies that GEV is working with have slowed as a result of coronavirus and disruptions in commodity prices.
"In general terms, upstream projects have seen changes to timelines, which has a flow-on effect to ours," he said.
Carolan said the key message is the development of the two new loading solutions.
"This has been a step-change in our offering to the upstream operators, in particular offshore," he added.
The company and CIMC Raffles continue to work on engineering and areas of detailed design for the entire CNG supply chain as part of their strategic alliance.
This includes due diligence on the potential for an offshore CNG export facility in the US Gulf, which will need the SAL system.
In January, GEV secured an initial six-month extension from the Chinese yard.
Strong position
"During the past six months, our project teams have worked closely with the team at CIMC Raffles to complete important marine engineering work on our priority projects in Brazil and the US," executive chairman and chief executive Maurice Brand said.
"This work has put the company into a strong position to secure our first project CNG project for multiple applications, including Brazil and the US."
The Brazilian project involves GEV working with an operator of an under-development oilfield located in the offshore Brazilian Pre-Salt play, about 200 km (125 miles) from Rio de Janeiro.
A first marine application for CNG — in which gas is stored under pressure rather than being liquefied like LNG — has been the subject of several projects over the past 20 years.
The company’s Optimum design is essentially a handymax-size hull filled with horizontally stacked, carbon-steel pipes about 100 metres long.
The bottom pipes are welded to the hull and those above held in place by pressure exerted from a series of jacks located below the deck.
The capacity is equivalent to about 1.5m tonnes of LNG, in its 130 km of piping.
In February, GEV tasked two Clarksons companies with raising funds for its Brazilian scheme.
It appointed Clarksons Platou Securities and Clarksons Platou Structured Asset Finance as brokers, financial advisors and lead managers for all debt and equity requirements relating to its debut move in Brazil.
