Golar LNG Limited has acquired Seatrium’s and Black & Veatch’s minority ownership interests in the FLNG Hilli, according to the company's release. The acquisitions comprise all third-party interests in the asset, including a total of 5.45% common units, 10.9% Series A shares and 10.9% Series B shares. The transaction is equivalent to ~8% of the full FLNG capacity. The total consideration for the acquisitions is $90.2 million, of which $59.9m is in equity and $30.3 million is a pro-rata share in the existing FLNG Hilli debt facility. The full economic interest of the increased ownership in FLNG Hilli will be effective from 1st of January 2025.
The FLNG Hilli is currently contracted to Perenco in Cameroon, until contract expiry in July 2026. The asset is then intended to relocate to Argentina to start a 20-year contract for Southern Energy, a consortium of leading natural gas producers in Argentina.
The Southern Energy contract remains subject to defined conditions precedent, including an export license, environmental assessment and Final Investment Decision by Southern Energy.
Since her contract start-up in 2018 the FLNG Hilli has demonstrated market leading operational uptime for FLNGs globally. The asset has delivered 124 LNG cargoes and offloaded more than 8.5 million tons of LNG. In addition, Seatrium and Golar have agreed to resolve other remaining open items, resulting in a $7 million payment by Golar to Seatrium in relation to a Hilli Train 3 utilization bonus and settlement of historical work related to former Golar owned LNGC, the Golar Gandria. Following these resolutions there are no outstanding contractual arrangements between Seatrium and Golar related to existing assets.