Exmar set to grow back its LNG business as it seeks to go private

At the close of the 1990s, Belgian gas shipowner Exmar gave South Korea its first export order for an LNG carrier newbuilding when it contracted a vessel that would later be named after the legendary mythical sword — Excalibur.

Over 20 years on — and after seven to eight years that Exmar executive chairman Nicolas Saverys told TradeWinds had, until recently, been some of the most difficult of his life — the 138,000-cbm steam turbine ship Excalibur (built 2002) is heading for a new life as a floating storage unit in the Republic of Congo.