John Fredriksen-backed Flex LNG has announced that the “supermajor” charterer of the Flex Courageous has exercised its first extension option.
The 173,400-cbm Flex Courageous (built 2019) was fixed on a three-year time charter on 1 November 2021, but this will be extended for another two years, the Oslo-listed company said.
In January, sister ship the Flex Resolute (built 2020) also had its charter extended by two years until 2027.
“We are pleased that the charterer of Flex Courageous has decided to extend the time charter in line with what was recently done for Flex Resolute,” Flex chief executive Oystein Kalleklev said.
The Flex Courageous’ time charter started in February 2022.
TradeWinds earlier reported that the two vessels had been chartered by BP.
Brokers said then that BP had fixed the ships at rates in the high $80,000-per-day region for the firm three-year periods.
Under the charter, BP has the option to extend the period by two consecutive two-year periods.
Following this first option declaration, the Flex Courageous will be firm until the first quarter of 2027.
The charterer will then have a final option to extend the charter by another two years until 2029.
Flex said it has “high” contract coverage with “51 years of minimum charter backlog which may grow to 71 years with charterer’s extension options”.
“Flex LNG has approximately 94% charter coverage for the remaining part of 2024, so we remain well positioned with only one ship, the Flex Constellation, coming open during the second quarter which is usually when the freight market starts to tighten again after the seasonal adjustment coming out of the winter,” Kalleklev said.
