Sinokor Merchant Marine has agreed to buy a 16-year-old LNG carrier from TotalEnergies and NYK Line.
Brokers said the South Korean shipowner is set to pay a strong price of around $68m for the 154,472-cbm LNG Alliance (ex-Gaselys, built 2007).
The deal is said to include a charterback to TotalEnergies for a period of around 15 months, with delivery scheduled for June.
The LNG Alliance is the last owned LNG carrier in TotalEnergies’ fleet.
The French energy major has previously referred to this ship and two other LNG carriers, which it has already sold, as its “legacy assets” and said it would look for the right opportunities to divest them.
TradeWinds reported in February that Sinokor had been in talks with TotalEnergies on the ship, which is jointly owned with Japan’s NYK Line.
Negotiations have been held over the past few weeks, but sources following the ship said they have now reached a firm agreement.
The LNG Alliance is one of several LNG carriers that TotalEnergies acquired when it bought the upstream assets of Engie in mid-2018.
The vessel and its 154,472-cbm sister ship LNG Unity (ex-Provalys), along with a 74,130-cbm Medmax, Global Energy (both built 2006), were built with GTT’s now discontinued CS1 cargo containment system, which suffered de-bonding issues resulting in long-running legal action and tank repairs to all three ships.
The LNG Alliance, the last of the three to be built, is believed to have undergone less work. But the LNG Unity, which was bought a year ago by Turkey’s Karpowership for around $40m, is understood to be operating with only three cargo tanks.
The membrane-type LNG carrier buy would appear to be something of a new direction for Sinokor, which has previously confined its secondhand LNG purchases to older ships, many of which were laid up.
The buy would give the camera-shy shipowner exposure to a charter with an energy major.
Sinokor is expected to take delivery of an LNG carrier newbuilding from Samsung Heavy Industries in early 2024.
It is one of four ordered by the shipowner in February 2019 at a reported price of $193m each. The first vessel was originally due for delivery in 2021. Last year, talk rumbled around the market about whether the company would be prepared to sell the vessel, as buyers searched for early-delivering ships in a tight shipbuilding market.
As newbuilding prices climbed to the $250m mark last year, Sinokor was said to be countering offers with quotes of $270m for the ship.
Sales of secondhand LNG carriers were brisk in the first quarter of 2023. Deals on nine ships were agreed and three vessels were sent for demolition.
Discussions are said to be continuing on several other ships seeking trading or conversion buys.
Fearnley LNG said in its report: “The cargo sizes that charterers are considering going forward is also a challenge as it’s moving beyond the loading capacity of vintage vessels.”
But the broker said vessels are still being inspected and interest is “good” for some of the units.
