Norwegian shipping firm Flex LNG, the owner of 13 liquefied natural gas carriers, has secured a time charter extension from US LNG exporter Cheniere for its vessel, Flex Endeavour.
The LNG carrier owner controlled by billionaire John Fredriksen said on Friday that the charterer of the 2018-built 173,400-cbm ME-GI LNG carrier had exercised an option to extend the firm period of the charter by 500 days, from the third quarter 2030 to the first quarter of 2032.
Flex announced in November 2022 it extended charter deals for three carriers that are serving a unit of US LNG exporting giant Cheniere.
Besides Flex Endeavour, the other two vessels in question are the 2021-built 174,000-cbm Flex Vigilant and the 2018-built 174,000-cbm Flex Ranger.
Following the exercise of the new option for Flex Enedevaour, the charterer has one further option to extend the time charter period by one additional year to 2033, Flex said.
Three extensions
Prior to this, Flex secured two charter extensions from UK-based energy giant BP for the 2019-built 173,400-cbm, Flex Courageous, and the 2020-built 173,400-cbm LNG carrier, Flex Resolute.
CEO Øystein Kalleklev said the new contract extension for Flex Endeavour is “bringing the total to three so far this year and evidencing the fact that our charterers like the service we provide.”
“We have so far added about 4.4 years of additional firm backlog while we have been consuming about 3.6 years of backlog, thus putting us at a slight surplus in terms of contract backlog,” he said.
“With this extension, our total firm backlog stands at a solid 51 years, which may increase to 69 years in the event charterers are utilizing all their extension options,” Kalleklev said.