Exmar Takes Delivery of Caribbean FLNG

Belgian shipowner Exmar announced July 27 it took delivery of the Caribbean FLNG barge (CFLNG) earlier that day at China's Wison shipyard.

CFLNG consists of a 500,000 tons per year floating liquefaction plant with 16,000 m³ of LNG storage and will remain moored at the Wison yard for now. Exmar said it would inform markets about CFLNG's deployment "once a final agreement with the customer is signed" without naming the latter.

A month ago the Belgian firm secured $200mn of financing from Bank of China, Sinosure and Deutsche Bank, enabling it to pay off the Chinese shipyard. It now said it "extends its gratitude and congratulations to all [these] parties involved in this milestone project for their commitment and collaboration."

Five years ago Exmar had expected CFLNG would become the world's first floating liquefaction facility to enter production. 

Colombian gas producer Pacific Rubiales reached an agreement with Exmar in 2012 that provided the latter with the confidence to order the CFLNG; however after the Colombian producer underwent a financial restructuring last year, Exmar felt it had no alternative but to cancel its charter with it.

Mark Smedley