Golar seals $1.2 billion leasing deal for FLNG Gimi

Golar said on Thursday the sale and leaseback facility will be about $1.2 billion.

The contemplated sale and leaseback facility will have a tenor of 12 years and a 17-year amortization profile, with quarterly repayment installments throughout the lease period.

Upon closing and repayment of the existing debt facility, Gimi MS Corporation is expected to generate net proceeds of about $530 million, Golar said.

This amount includes the release of existing interest rate swaps.

Golar said it will benefit from 70 percent of these proceeds, equivalent to about $371 million.

According to the firm, the transaction remains subject to closing conditions including documentation and third-party approvals.

The firm expects the facility to close within the second quarter of 2025.

Tortue project

Gimi FLNG is serving BP’s delayed Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project located offshore Mauritania and Senegal.

Golar recently said the project’s first LNG cargo is expected this quarter and the commercial operations date (COD) is expected within the second quarter of 2025.

COD will trigger the start of the 20-year lease and operate agreement that unlocks the equivalent of around $3 billion of Adjusted Ebitda backlog, according to Golar.

In February, the 2.5 mtpa FLNG, which was converted from a 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 cbm, arrived at the GTA hub.

After that, the project’s floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit also arrived at the GTA project off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal in May.

Following Golar’s commercial reset with BP announced in August 2024, accelerated commissioning commenced in October 2024 using gas from an LNG carrier.

In January 2025, gas from the carrier was replaced by feedgas from the BP-operated FPSO which allowed full commissioning to start.

Last month, the FLNG started LNG production.