Ghana's 1st LNG Terminal 'Arriving Shortly'
Update: FSRU Golar Tundra was anchored about 8km offshore Tema on June 1 and 2 - and was still anchored there early evening on Monday June 13, according to ship tracking sources. The ship is intended to serve as West Africa's first floating LNG import terminal.
Golar LNG said in its 1Q results on May 31 that the floating storage and regas unit, FSRU Golar Tundra, is due to arrive shortly in Ghana.
The shipowner said that, in March 2016, the FSRU went to Keppel Shipyard for minor modifications required to ensure its compatibility with receiving facilities inside Ghana’s port of Tema. These were completed in May, it added, and that the ship is now proceeding to Ghana and would arrive there shortly. It is preparing to issue a notice of readiness “in the very near future”, adding that payments under the contract – with the NNPC/Sahara Energy joint venture, West African Gas Limited (WAGL) – start 30 days thereafter.
Golar LNG reported a 1Q adjusted operating loss of $41.2mn; its 4Q 2015 loss was $31.6mn. Utilisation rates for its LNG carriers fell to 24% in 1Q 2016, from 42% in 4Q 2015, leading to a loss of revenues. Two carriers employed by Nigeria LNG in January 2015 concluded their charters during March 2016 and have both entered into the ‘Cool Pool’ – an arrangement with rival LNG shipowners Dynagas and GasLog launched in 2015 to jointly offer their more than a dozen LNG carriers for spot chartering.
Slower than expected start-ups at Sabine Pass in the US, Gorgon in Australia and Angola LNG weighed negatively on LNG charter rates in 1Q 2016, noted Golar LNG, adding that a recent tender by state Enarsa for 35 cargoes into Argentina stimulated additional chartering activity in early 2Q but that it was "too soon to tell if this might translate into an improvement over 1Q utilisation."
Regarding Floating LNG, Golar said its GoFLNG Hilli conversion project for the Perenco-led Cameroon project "remains on schedule and within budget" and it "expects to deliver its midstream contribution to the project by the contract start-up date in September 2017." It also acknowledged the slippage announced by Ophir Energy in the project schedule of a separate FLNG project offshore Equatorial Guinea where Golar is also involved.
Mark Smedley