Norwegian shipping firm Flex LNG said it has signed charter deals for two of its liquefied natural gas carriers.
The 2019-built 173,400-cbm Flex Courageous and the 2020-built Flex Resolute would go on charter to an “energy major” for a minimum firm contract duration of three years, according to the firm controlled by billionaire John Fredriksen.
Also, the charterer has an option to extend the contracts for two two-year periods for each ME-GI ship, bringing the total period to seven years under each of the contracts.
Flex LNG said it would deliver the ships to the charterer during the first quarter of 2021, in direct continuation of their existing time charters with worldwide delivery.
According to Flex LNG, the deals remain subject to final documentation and certain closing conditions.
The firm did not reveal any additional information regarding the contracts but it is a good time to sign new contracts as charter rates have last month surged to over $200,000 a day in the Pacific.
Chief executive Øystein Kalleklev welcomed the “attractive” time charter contracts.
“Since April we have thus secured long-term fixed hire employment for eight, possibly nine of our ships in line with our communicated strategy of securing attractive revenue backlog once the market has improved,” he said.
“Our firm contract backlog is now about 33 years with a further 36 years of optional backlog. This highlights the attractiveness of owning and operating highly efficient ships with significantly lower carbon footprint than the older generation ships,” Kalleklev said.
Flex LNG has a fleet of nine ME-GI LNG carriers and four X-DF vessels built between 2018 and 2021.