Lithuania Seeks Alternative Bids for LNG Import Terminal
Lithuania is seeking alternative bids from providers of floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to potentially replace its existing import terminal, operator Klaipedos Nafta said on Friday.The Baltic state leases a floating storage and regasification vessel (FSRU) from Norway's Hoegh LNG and has an option to buy it when the lease expires in 2024.The state-controlled Klaipedos Nafta said it had decided to seek alternative bids to make sure that it gets the best terms, and has to make the final decision by the end of 2022.Lithuania has been importing LNG via the current terminal, dubbed Independence, since 2014, thereby ending Russia's Gazprom pipeline gas supply monopoly
China Bank Supports Hoegh LNG for New FRSU
Hoegh LNG on its first ever sale and leaseback deal with China Construction Bank Financial Leasing (CCBFL) for its tenth Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU), the Hoegh Galleon, which was delivered yesterday (August 27) and has been taken back on charter by Hoegh LNG for twelve years.Following the completion of the transaction, Hoegh LNG is now fully funded with both equity and debt for its current newbuilding program, which will be completed with the delivery of Hoegh Galleon in August 2019.The Hoegh Galleon has been employed on an 18-months interim LNGC time charter with Cheniere before its intended long-term charter with AIE in Australia…
FLNG Market Grows a CAGR of +93%
Global floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) market is growing at a CAGR of +93% during forecast period 2019-2026 as the demand for natural gas has been rising as it is a preferred fuel in power generation in various industries.According to a report from Research N Reports, the demand comes from mainly for the regions such as North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India.Natural gas is cleaner, safer, and more cost-effective than other fuels. It has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it said.Natural…
FSRU Suppliers Shift from Emerging Markets, Cut Back New Orders
Political instability and low credit ratings in emerging economies are putting some shipowners off ordering new floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), as they shift focus to more mature gas markets.Liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand from emerging markets in Asia, Africa and South America was expected to be boosted by FSRU technologies that are less expensive and time-consuming than onshore import terminals.But a boom in speculative FSRU orders from shipowners led to an oversupply of units this year as import projects across the world were delayed or cancelled…
Lithuania Plans to Buy an FSRU
Lithuania has given the go ahead to state-owned Klaipedos Nafta to purchase a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage vessel by late 2024, as it shores up energy supplies and reduces its reliance on Russian natural gas.Klaipedos Nafta is currently leasing a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), called Independence, from Norway's Hoegh LNG.The use of the vessel has allowed Lithuania to import LNG since 2014, breaking the monopoly Russia's Gazprom had on natural gas supply to the country as well as neighboring Latvia and Estonia."This will keep us able…
Hoegh LNG Partners Appoints New CFO
The floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Höegh LNG Holdings announced that Håvard Furu is appointed as new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Höegh LNG AS effective 1 March 2019.The interim CFO, Steffen Føreid, will step down effective 1 March 2019 and will from then continue in his role as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Höegh LNG Partners LP.Håvard Furu comes from the position as CFO of law firm Wikborg Rein. Before that he was CFO in Western Bulk in the period 2009 to 2017 and was formerly employed by BW Gas as Assistant Director Strategy and Finance.From 1997 until 2005 he held various positions within auditing with PriceWaterhouse Coopers.
Global LNG Trade Jumps by 7.1%, Says Höegh LNG
The global floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade reached 236 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, up by 7.1% from the same period of 2017 on a combination of robust Asian demand and new supplies of LNG from Australia and the USA, said Höegh LNG.The provider of LNG transportation and services said that for the full year, LNG trade is expected to reach around 320 million tonnes, up by more than 7% from 2017.Increasing Chinese demand continues to be a key driver for expanding LNG volumes. LNG imports by China were 37.7 million tonnes during the first nine months of 2018…
Hoegh Gallant Leaves Egypt, Sets US Destination
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Hoegh Gallant has left its mooring in Egypt, where it had been used as a floating import terminal since 2015, and set course for the U.S. Sabine Pass production facility, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.Hoegh LNG said earlier this week it agreed an early termination of a contract with Egypt to use Hoegh Gallant as a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and would instead charter the vessel to a third party as a regular LNG carrier.(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Jason Neely)
Hoegh LNG Vessel to Leave Egypt Before Weekend
Egypt's petroleum minister said on Tuesday that a regasification vessel would leave Egypt by the end of the week, a day after Norway's Hoegh LNG said Egypt was to give up one of its two floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.The minister, Tarek El Molla, told Reuters the other vessel would stay behind as part of the petroleum ministry's strategy to maintain energy supplies for the country.Hoegh said Egypt Natural Gas Holding (EGAS), having decided to end its charter early, has agreed to pay the difference between its contract for the terminal…
LNG Shipping Rates Spike with No Respite Seen Through 2019
The price of shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) has spiked in September and is likely to remain high next year, buoyed by rising production from new plants and concerns that demand for LNG vessels will outpace supply.The rate for vessels shipping LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia has jumped to $90,000 to $95,000 a day this week from $75,000 a day at the end of August, brokers and traders said.Rates, which broadly hovered around $30,000 to $40,000 a day from 2015 to 2017, have risen due to longer distances covered to transport LNG from new terminals in the United States and Arctic Russia…
LNG Shipping Rates Spike With no Respite Seen Through 2019
The price of shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) has spiked in September and is likely to remain high next year, buoyed by rising production from new plants and concerns that demand for LNG vessels will outpace supply.The rate for vessels shipping LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia has jumped to $90,000 to $95,000 a day this week from $75,000 a day at the end of August, brokers and traders said.Rates, which broadly hovered around $30,000 to $40,000 a day from 2015 to 2017, have risen due to longer distances covered to transport LNG from new terminals in the United States and Arctic Russia…
Hoegh Backs Out of Chile LNG Project but Buoyant on Market
Hoegh LNG said on Thursday it had let agreements lapse in Chile that tied one of its floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import vessels to a project there because approvals for the initiative were likely to be delayed again.The Norwegian company was due to provide a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to GNL Penco for 20 years under a 2015 deal, with an original start date of the second quarter of 2018, but regulatory permits were slow in coming.Hoegh said it had been "made aware that the planned approval process for the GNL Penco FSRU project is likely to be further delayed…
Hoegh LNG to Supply FLNG Terminal to Australian Import Project
Norway's Hoegh LNG has won a tender to supply a floating LNG import terminal for a consortium aiming to import liquefied natural gas to Australia's east coast from 2020 in a push to boost local supply.Australian Industrial Energy, a consortium that includes Japan's JERA and Marubeni Corp, said on Monday it signed an agreement giving it the right to lease one of Hoegh LNG's floating storage and regasification units (FSRU), to be docked at Port Kembla.The project needs approvals from the state of New South Wales, which is evaluating the proposal on a fast track as "critical state significant infrastructure", amid pressure to drive down gas prices."We remain on schedule to delive
For the Global LNG Industry, is the FSRU Honeymoon Over?
A giant vessel docked at the port of Moheshkhali in Bangladesh two months ago, propelling the populous but poor nation into the fast-expanding club of liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers.The Excellence is the latest floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), a type of carrier that has proliferated since 2015 as many countries switch to a cleaner and increasingly cheaper fuel than oil and coal.But the young FSRU industry has been beset by more project delays than successes in the past 12 months as fluctuating energy prices, shipping rates…
CNOOC Leases Bigger FSRU to Boost LNG Imports
The trading arm of China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) struck a three-year lease for a bigger floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) from Hoegh LNG as it seeks to boost imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).In a statement, shipowner Hoegh LNG said its Esperanza FSRU was contracted to CNOOC Gas & Power Trading and Marketing.The floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal will be based in Tianjin as a replacement for Hoegh's GDF Suez Cape Anne FSRU, recently redeployed from China to India.The Esperanza is larger, with a storage capacity of 170…
Asia's Soaring Gas Demand Beckons New LNG Projects
Global LNG imports rose by 20 percent in 2017; new demand emerges across South, Southeast Asia. Soaring gas demand from China, India and Southeast Asia is sucking up an LNG supply glut previously expected to last for years, opening opportunity for new production from East Africa to North America that had been deemed part of the overhang. Trade flows in Eikon show global liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports have risen 40 percent since 2015, to almost 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) a month. Growth accelerated in 2017, with imports up by a fifth, largely due to China, but also South Korea and Japan.
Pakistan LNG Import Project Consortium Folds -Hoegh LNG
A consortium behind a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import project in Pakistan, including oil giant Exxon Mobil, France's Total and Qatar Petroleum, has been dissolved, shipping company Hoegh LNG said on Thursday. Hoegh LNG was due to supply the project's ship-based import terminal, a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), where LNG brought in by tanker is converted back to gas to feed into Pakistan's grid. The other six members of the consortium were Japan's Mitsubishi and Turkish developer Global Energy Infrastructure (GEI). "The consortium has spent considerable time and resources on finding [the project's] final form and structure.
Qatar Seeks to Open New LNG Markets with Floating Terminals
Qatar Gas Transport Company and Norwegian shipping business Hoegh LNG have embarked on a joint project to open new markets for Qatar to sell its liquefied natural gas (LNG) via floating import terminals. Hoegh LNG, a developer of floating LNG import terminals, expects to start work on the import terminal project in a matter of months, CEO Sveinung Stohle told Reuters. Stohle said Hoegh LNG and Qatar Gas Transport Company, which operates a large fleet of LNG tankers, are evaluating countries in which they could establish a floating terminal, naming South America and south-east Asia as attractive prospects.
In Demand: Hoegh LNG’s Sveinung Stoehle
Satisfied with the recent opening of a new floating LNG import terminal in Turkey plus contract successes in Africa and Asia, Hoegh LNG CEO and president, Sveinung Stoehle, cautiously lets us into his stylish Oslo offices for a bit of “disclosure”. The Hoegh business model is winning out, and now six floating storage and regasification units, or FSRUs, are in operation with four newbuilds on the way. The terminal in Turkey was built in just six months: “It would be years, not months, for a land-based gas terminal,” Stohle asserts. That risk argument has Hoegh LNG in just about every gas-trading discussion in the developing world, so we asked to hear more.
Höegh LNG Orders 4 FSRU from Samsung Heavy
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries Co has won one firm Shipbuilding Contract (SBC) and an agreement for three optional floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) from Hoegh LNG Holdings. Under the deal with Norway-based Hoegh LNG Holdings Ltd., the shipyard will build the vessel by May 2019, the company said in a regulatory filing. Samsung has an option to build three more FSRU units, it said. Höegh LNG's President and Chief Executive Officer Sveinung J. S. Støhle said in a comment: "We are very pleased to have completed this agreement with SHI, a yard we know well as SHI built Höegh LNG's first two FSRUs.