Oslo-listed GasLog, the Monaco-based LNG carrier owner, has reported a sharp increase in profits in 1Q15, saying the sector’s medium- to long-term outlook remains encouraging.
Group net profits jumped to USD13.8 million in 1Q15 from USD6.4 million in the same period last year, as revenues rose to USD97.3 million from USD57 million.
“Against a backdrop of weak overall energy markets, the first quarter of 2015 saw us take delivery of Methane Becki Anne and Methane Julia Louise, bringing our consolidated fleet to 27 vessels,” said GasLog CEO Paul Wogan.
“We continued to make further positive progress in the weeks after quarter end, announcing a transaction with BG Group to charter up to nine newbuildings, three of which are firm and will be satisfied by our currently uncontracted newbuildings. The transaction adds a significant amount of fixed-rate revenue and adds to the potential pipeline of dropdowns for GasLog Partners LP, which we believe will further enhance the sum of the parts valuation of GasLog,” said a company statement.
Looking ahead, GasLog said it believes the medium- to long-term outlook for LNG shipping demand will remain positive, despite the decline in prices and spot charter rates over the last six months. “There are a number of new projects in progress that have firm off-take agreements, secured financing, or are under construction, and we expect a number of these to come online in 2015, which will materially increase global LNG production capacity,” the company said.
GasLog, which is domiciled in Bermuda, headquartered in Monaco, and maintains a technical office in Athens, has six newbuildings on order. Two of these constitute an extension of a series of 154,000 m3 units already in service, and four will have a capacity of 174,000 m3 each. Deliveries will run up to 2017.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
