Belgian gas carrier operator Exmar saw net profit dip to USD9.4 million during the first quarter after USD14.2 million in Q1 last year as it waits for the first revenues from Caribbean FLNG to arrive early next year.
The company said that construction of the floating liquefaction and storage vessel, the first of its kind in the world, was currently being completed in China, with commissioning due to follow in the course of the summer.
Energy group Pacific Rubiales Energy (PRE) has postponed the start-up of the Caribbean LNG project for which the vessel is destined but has said that it will charter the ship anyway as agreed under the terms of its 15-year contract with Exmar.
It is studying other ways of using the vessel, pending a new date for start-up of Caribbean LNG, but Exmar said that, whatever was decided, it expected to start receiving daily payments for Caribbean FLNG in the first quarter of 2016.
Exmar is also due to take delivery of a floating regasification barge in late 2016 but says it is confident it can secure a contract for the barge before the end of this year.
Regarding its first quarter result, Exmar pointed out that the fall in net profit compared with last year was largely explained by the USD4.4 million proceeds of a vessel sale and a USD2.2 million unrealised financial gain in the first quarter last year.
Consolidated operating result was only slightly down at USD15.3 million, compared with USD17 million last year, as fleet utilisation remained strong both in LNG and LPG.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
