Golar currently operates the 2.4 mtpa Hilli, which works offshore Cameroon, and the 2.7 mtpa Hilli, which recently started LNG production offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
Last year, Golar signed an EPC agreement with China’s CIMC Raffles to convert its 148,000-cbm Moss-type carrier, Fuji LNG, into an MKII FLNG with a capacity of 3.5 mtpa.
This deal also includes an option for a second FLNG.
The Golar MK II design is an evolution of the MK I design of FLNG Hilli and FLNG Gimi, while Golar’s MK III design is the largest with a capacity of up to 5.4 mtpa.
“We’re in advanced commercial discussions for Mark II FLNG deployment and we are also discussing projects with potential for multiple FLNG deployments,” Staubo said during Golar’s earnings call on Thursday.
“On the back of these developments, we have advanced discussions with shipyards for potential fourth FLNG unit development. We, as previously disclosed, are not planning to order such vessels until we’ve secured a vessel for the Mark II, but we want to be ready to go with the fourth unit as soon as that’s concluded,” he said.
Staubo said that, depending on contracts, Golar could order another Mark II unit at CIMC and an additional Mark I unit at a different yard.
“So basically the way we see it is that the commercial developments are progressing on multiple fronts,” he said.
He said that Mark I would be more suitable for some of those projects, meaning that Golar would most likely return to order FLNG conversion at Singapore’s Seatrium.
“We obviously have the option for Mark II at CIMC and we’re also progressing projects for the Mark III, which we’ve spent considerable time and effort developing, which is obviously a 5 mtpa unit which would be by quite a long stretch the largest FLNG in the world,” he said.
“And therefore the fourth FLNG may or may not be the Mark II, but subject to the commercial development, either a Mark I or even a Mark III. That’s how we see it. But we obviously are not ruling out that it could be a Mark II as well. It’s just that the commercial development dictates the size of the fourth FLNG,” he said.
Search for conversion candidates
Staubo also said that Golar has started identifying LNG carrier candidates for the fourth conversion.
“We’ve also inspected vessels. It’s something we keep a close eye on,” he said.
“I think if you look at the LNG carrier market, the price of those are more downward pressure than upward pressure, to put it that way,” he said.
“There are available vessels that would be suitable to our conversion ambitions. Some of them are direct sisters of the Fuji. Others have different characteristics that we may deem beneficial,” Staubo said.
“Given the price dynamics in the market we don’t feel a rush to do it, but it’s something we keep a very close eye on,” he said.
