Norwegian shipping firm Flex LNG, the owner of 13 liquefied natural gas carriers, has secured a time charter extension for its vessel, Flex Resolute.
The shipping firm controlled by billionaire John Fredriksen said on Thursday that the charterer of the 2020-built 173,400-cbm LNG carrier had exercised its first extension option.
Flex said the charter is a “super major”. UK-based energy giant BP was previously said to be the charterer of this vessel.
Flex Resolute was fixed on a three-year time charter on November 1, 2021, starting in January 2022.
Under the deal, the charterer had options to extend the period by up to four additional years in two-year periods.
Following this option declaration, Flex Resolute is on a fixed hire contract until at least first quarter of 2027, according to Flex.
The charterer will then have a final option to extend the charter by another two years until 2029, it said.
CEO Øystein Kalleklev said Flex “is well positioned with 95 percent charter coverage for 2024 and about 50 years of firm backlog.”
“We have one ship, Flex Constellation, coming open this year during the second quarter when the freight market usually starts to tighten again after the seasonal adjustment coming out of the winter,” he said.
Flex recently said that the 2019-built 173,400-cbm, Flex Constellation, will be available for charter later this year after a trading house decided not to utilize its extension option.