Belgium's Exmar deepens ties with Eni with LNG vessel deal (updated)

EXMAR NV

09/09/2022 18:08

(Adds details)
    Sept 9 (Reuters) - Belgian shipowner Exmar  EXMR.BR  said on
Friday it had signed a 10-year charter deal for the liquefied
natural gas (LNG) vessel Excalibur with Eni  ENI.MI  as the
Belgian shipowner closes the sale of its Tango LNG barge to the
Italian energy group.
    The squeeze on oil and gas imports from Russia, following
what Moscow calls "a special military operation" in Ukraine, has
left Western powers scrambling to plug the energy gap, pushing
them to expand LNG capacity.
    Exmar, which had been struggling to find a user to charter
one of its giant LNG ships, said in August it had agreed to sell
its Tango LNG floating liquefaction facility to Italy's Eni for
572 million to 694 million dollars.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ZH5OO
    The group said in an earnings report that it had recently
signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Excalibur, Exmar's sole
LNG carrier, which after dry-dock will be converted into a
floating storage unit (FSU) and employed for the Eni project.
    KBC Securities' Olivier Vandewoude had written at the time
that the sale was "a huge deal" for the company, "tak(ing) away
all doubts about Exmar's balance sheet".
    Built in 2017, the Tango LNG floating liquefaction facility
will begin its activity in Congo in the second half of 2023 and
become part of Eni's operations of the natural gas development
project in the Marine XII block.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ZH5OO
    Exmar, which sees the charter agreement of its
regasification unit (FSRU) for Gasunie's planned LNG Eemshaven
terminal to deliver hire income from mid-August this year, also
said it had received an order of two new build midsize liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG)/ammonia carriers.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VL0LU
    The delivery of these new vessels for $69 million each is
set to take place at the end of 2024 or early 2025, the group
added in an earnings statement.
    Exmar posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortisation (EBITDA) of 1.2 million euros, down from 61
million a year earlier.

 (Reporting by Juliette Portala, editing by David Evans and
Louise Heavens)
 ((juliette.portala@tr.com ; +48 587 696 607))