LNG carrier operator CoolCo, formed by Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping and Tor Olav Troim’s Golar LNG, has signed another charter deal for one of its LNG carriers.
The firm said last month it agreed a charter deal at either about $190,000 per day for one year or $120,000 per day for three years and was in “advanced discussions on a second three-year charter for a vessel available in the first quarter of 2023.”
CoolCo said in tis third-quarter report on Wednesday that the charter agreed from end October was confirmed as a three-year charter at about $120,000 per day.
In addition, the LNG shipper concluded talks for the second charter deal.
The three-year charter would start in the first quarter of 2023 at a rate that “steps down from a high level to a lower level and averages approximately $120,000 per day over the period of the charter,” CoolCo said.
CoolCo owns eight TFDE LNG vessels it bought from Golar and the four vessels it recently purchased from Quantum Crude Tankers, an affiliate of EPS. These four LNG carriers serve Shell under charter deals.
Besides these owned vessels, CoolCo manages a fleet of 27 third-party vessels and floating LNG infrastructure assets, according to the quarterly report.
CoolCo said its share count increased to 53,688,462 shares with EPS holding 49.9 percent (+25 percent), Golar has 8.3 percent (-73 percent), and public investors have 41.8 percent (+46 percent).
“Buoyant market”
CoolCo generated quarterly operating income of $36.4 million and a net income of $36.8 million.
The firm achieved average third-quarter daily time charter equivalent earnings (TCE) of $73,200 per day.
“I am pleased to see the buoyant market for our LNG carriers feeding through to the financial results. This is a trend that I expect to feed into future quarters with demand expected to remain robust and energy security considerations extending into 2023,” Richard Tyrrell, CEO of CoolCo said in the report.
“Since the company’s founding in early 2022, we have quickly established CoolCo as a leading owner and operator in the LNG shipping sector while successfully fixing our available ships on attractive charters,” he said.
“Moving forward, we expect LNG’s dual roles as a provider of energy security and enabler of the energy transition to remain powerful drivers,” Tyrrell said.