Dynagas LNG Partners Finds Work for LNG Carrier Pair

Owner and operator of LNG carriers Dynagas LNG Partners has secured more work for two of its LNG carriers, Arctic Aurora and Clean Energy.

The company entered into a new three-year charter agreement with Statoil for the employment of the 2013-built Arctic Aurora. The 155,000 cbm, tri-fuel diesel engine, ice class LNG carrier is currently, and has been since 2013, on charter to Statoil.

As informed, the extended charter is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2018 in direct continuation of the current charter. Statoil will have the option to extend the new charter by two consecutive 12-month periods at escalated rates.

In addition, PetroChina International (Singapore) has exercised its right to extend the current charter term for the Clean Energy by a minimum period of approximately four months.

The 2007-built, 150,000 cbm LNG carrier was delivered to PetroChina in October 2017. It is now expected to be redelivered to Dynagas under the charter, as extended, at the earliest, in May 2018 and at latest, in June 2018, prior to its delivery to Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore in July 2018, when the vessel will commence a time charter with a term of approximately eight years.

The extension of these two charter periods increases the partnership’s estimated contracted backlog to approximately USD 1.51 billion with average remaining contract duration of about 10.6 years, according to Dynagas.

“Statoil is an important partner for Dynagas that further solidifies our operation of LNG carriers in subzero and ice bound areas. The charter with PetroChina strengthens an important cooperation that provides cleaner energy in a rapidly growing Chinese gas market,” Tony Lauritzen, Chief Executive Officer of Dynagas LNG, commented.

“As previously communicated we have been executing on our strategy of securing term employment for part of our availability in 2018 on the back of an improving LNG shipping market,” Lauritzen added.

Currently, Dynagas LNG Partners’ fleet comprises six LNG carriers. Each of the vessels has a carrying capacity of approximately 150,000 to 155,000 cbm.