MISC Buys Eni's Mid-Sized LNG Carriers

Malaysian LNG shipowner MISC said November 27 it has acquired two carriers, LNG Portovenere and LNG Lerici from Italy's Eni without disclosing a purchase price. They will increase its LNG fleet to 30 vessels.

MISC also said that the two carriers, each of 65,000 m³ capacity, have been chartered back to Eni for a period of five years, with LNG Portovenere tentatively starting next month and LNG Lerici from January 2019; they will be used to meet Eni's trading needs in international waters. The five year contract has an estimated combined contract value of $133mn, said MISC whose CEO Yee Yang Chien said the acquisition helps it to diversify into mid-scale and small-scale LNG transportation. Upon expiry of the charter, they could have potential for conversion into a floating LNG import terminal, he added.

The two carriers are both twenty years old, with Portovenere having been built 1997 and Lerici in 1998; both are currently operating in the Asia-Pacific region.

Eni said that its worldwide LNG sales from January to September 2018 increased year on year by 34% to 7.9bn m³, more than half of which were sold on Asian markets.  Eni's Jangkrik gas field started production in mid-2017 and supplying the long-established Bontang liquefaction plant, with the first resultant small-sized cargo produced from Jangkrik gas supplied to the nearby Bali market.

(Banner photo shows MISC's 2017-built 150,200 m3 capacity LNG carrier Seri Cenderawasih, courtesy of MISC)