Stena Bulk of Sweden is rumoured to have fixed two LNG newbuildings pencilled in at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea.
Talk was sweeping the market this week that the shipowner has chartered the ships to BG Group, although it has yet formally to state it has firmed up the orders.
The UK-listed company is showing a voracious appetite for LNG tonnage at present as it works to optimise its fleet of owned and chartered-in tonnage, brokers said.
Stena has been sitting on two LNG newbuilding slots for 2014 delivery dates at DSME alongside a pair of options for additional vessels.
Market players are watching closely for indication that any of the apparently speculatively ordered vessels from this year’s slew of LNG newbuildings have been fixed.
Stena made its move into LNG in May, splashing out $700m to buy Nobu Su-controlled Today Makes Tomorrow’s three-ship fleet.
Two of the vessels are 174,000-cbm newbuilding resales that have recently been delivered and renamed the Stena Crystal Sky and Stena Clear Sky.
Stena also acquired the 145,000-cbm LNG carrier Bluesky (built 2006).
BP is understood to have fixed Crystal Sky for eight months at a rate of around $110,000 per day.
The second recently delivered ship is fixed for a similar period and rate, possibly also to BP, although market players could not confirm the charterer’s identity.
