Stronger LNG Shipping Rates Push GasLog’s Earnings Up

Owner and operator of LNG carriers GasLog delivered record earnings in the quarter ended September 30, driven by an increase in LNG shipping spot rates.

Illustration; Image Courtesy: LNG Carriers/ Flickr-Kees Torn under CC BY-SA 2.0 license

Namely, the company said that it achieved record revenues in the third quarter, reaching USD 158.4 million, up from USD 131.2 million reported in the same period of 2017.

The company’s profit also increased to USD 39.3 million, compared to USD 24.2 million reported in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.

Additionally, GasLog witnessed the highest ever net pool performance from its vessels trading in the spot market under the LNG carrier pooling agreement (the Cool Pool) following a significant increase in LNG shipping spot rates during the third quarter.

“The LNG shipping market tightened considerably in the third quarter, driving headline spot rates to multi-year highs and delivering a record result for our ships operating in the Cool Pool. This, together with the contribution of our three newbuild vessels delivered earlier in 2018, produced another set of record quarterly results for GasLog,” Paul Wogan, Chief Executive Officer, said.

“With further strengthening of spot rates in October, we anticipate another significant increase in our spot earnings during the fourth quarter of 2018, despite the time lag for headline rates to manifest themselves in spot vessel earnings.”

LNG demand growth was strong and broad-based during the first nine months of 2018, growing 7% over the same period of 2017, according to data from Poten. LNG demand growth was led by China which grew approximately 42% year-over-year or nearly 11 million tonnes per annum as the country continued to grow its natural gas usage as a percentage of its total energy consumption.

The outlook for future demand growth continues to be robust, with over 6% per annum projected for 2018-2023, and with more than two-thirds of this demand growth coming from countries in South East Asia and Europe, Wood Mackenzie estimated.