The company announced this in a statement on Monday, revealing that FLNG Gimi has reached the commercial operations date (COD) for its 20-year lease and operate agreement for the BP-led Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project, offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
Golar said the COD triggers the start of the 20-year lease and operate agreement that unlocks the equivalent of around $3 billion of Adjusted Ebitda backlog.
Following the achieved COD of FLNG Gimi and announcement of the two FLNG charters in Argentina in May, Golar is accelerating work on its next FLNG unit(s).
“We continue to advance commercial discussions, with charterer demand guiding design choice of the fourth FLNG unit,” the company said.
“In addition to the 3.5 mtpa MKII option at CIMC Raffles shipyard, Golar has signed a final engineering study to confirm EPC price and delivery for a 5 mtpa MKIII FLNG and is updating price and schedule for an up to 2.7 mtpa MKI FLNG,” Golar said.
The company did not provide further details.
FLNG growth
Golar currently has two operational floating LNG units, which were converted from LNG carriers, including the 2.7 mtpa FLNG Gimi, which is located at the GTA hub offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
Moreover, Pan American Energy, Golar LNG, YPF, Pampa Energia, and Harbour Energy recently took a final investment decision for the Southern Energy floating LNG export project in Argentina in May.
Under a 20-year charter deal, the 2.4 mtpa FLNG Hilli, which is currently located offshore Cameroon, will work for Southern Energy (SESA) offshore Argentina.
In addition, Golar and SESA have signed definitive agreements for a 20-year charter for the 3.5 mtpa MKII FLNG, currently under conversion at CIMC Raffles shipyard in Yantai, China.
This charter remains subject to FID.
The Golar MK II design is an evolution of the MK I design of FLNG Hilli and FLNG Gimi.
As part of the $1.6 billion EPC agreement signed with CIMC Raffles last year, Golar has also secured an option for a second MK II FLNG conversion slot at CIMC for delivery within 2028.
This expected delivery is subject to the unit being ordered in 2025.
Golar has three different FLNG designs: the MK I, MK II, and MK III, which is a newbuild design.
These range in LNG liquefaction capacity from around 2 mtpa up to a maximum of 5.4 mtpa for MK III.
Seatrium built the MK I units, while Golar worked with Samsung Heavy on the MK III design.
If confirmed, the 5 mtpa FLNG would be the world’s largest FLNG.
Golar said in May that it was working with shipyards to order one or more floating LNG production units in 2025.
The FLNG industry is set for “massive” growth, according to Golar’s chairman, Tor Olav Trøim.
