Greece’s Thenamaris is to grow its LNG fleet for the first time in seven years with an order for a lone carrier.
Industry sources said Dinos Martinos-led Thenamaris ordered a 174,000-cbm vessel with XDF propulsion at Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea for delivery in 2020.
The contract is understood to have been signed earlier this month at Posidonia in Greece, where domestic owner Alpha Gas confirmed an order for one LNG carrier optional berth and Maran Gas Maritime inked orders for a floating storage and regasification unit and an LNG vessel at DSME
Thenamaris’ newbuilding, which is listed on the company’s website as Hull No. 3096, boosts its LNG carrier fleet to four vessels.
The company’s newbuilding fleet list reveals that Thenamaris has also added an aframax tanker newbuilding at Sumitomo Heavy Industries for 2020 delivery.
While the tanker order is likely an option on two aframax vessels ordered at the Japanese yard late last year, the LNG newbuilding marks a fresh move on gas by the company.
It comes on the back of a wave of newbuilding orders and recent yard enquiries from Greekshipowners who either already own LNG tonnage or are thinking of investing.
These include Martinos’ brother Andreas Martinos, whose company Minerva Marine jumped into the business in March with a pair of apparently speculative LNG carrier newbuildings at DSME. Others, including Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis of Latsco Shipping and Evangelos Marinakis of Capital Maritime & Trading, have been speaking to yards about LNG berths.
However, shipbuilders have been inching up their newbuilding prices.
Brokers report that shipyards are no longer willing to offer optional berth slots on recent orders unless they are at higher levels.
They indicate that prices for repeat clients are now in the region of $185m for LNG carriers, and suggest new entrants are likely to pay a premium of $2m to $3m on top.
Thenamaris has been a cautious mover on LNG. The company, which has previously made clear that it does not comment on its activities, made its break into the LNG shipping arena in 2011, joining what was then a second wave of Greek owners to shift into the sector.
Thenamaris contracted three 160,000-cbm LNG carriers at Samsung Heavy Industries, ordering two firm vessels and confirming an optional slot later that year. But it stopped short of declaring further options at the yard.
The ships — which were given what some observers have described as the “coolest” names in the business — delivered into a difficult charter market in 2013 to 2014.
At the time of their handover, there was talk of the first two ships being fixed to energy major Chevron, which Thenamaris had worked closely with on crude oil business, for multi-month charters.
When Shell’s former LNG shipping chief Andrew Robson went to work with the Greek owner, the ships were also linked to charters with the oil an gas giant.
