US-listed specialist Excelerate Energy is moving to put a floating storage and regasification unit-based terminal into Southcentral Alaska and to expand its interests to develop an onshore LNG import facility in northern Vietnam.
In a second-quarter results presentation, Excelerate said it is in “advanced discussions” with local utilities in Southcentral Alaska to develop an integrated LNG import terminal in the lower Cook Inlet region to help boost gas supplies as domestic reserves decline.
Excelerate said it would own the FSRU, the terminal and the regas capacity while being responsible for its LNG supply and sales to local utilities.
The company is targeting a commercial start date of 2028 for the facility.
Separately, the company said it has signed a term sheet with private Vietnamese company ITECO Joint Stock Co to develop a 1.2m tonnes per annum capacity terminal that would be located in Haiphong.
A first phase of what Excelerate called the Northern Vietnam LNG Terminal would have a capacity of 0.7 mtpa with a planned commercial start date of 2027.
Excelerate said it would hold the exclusive rights to supply LNG to the terminal and would be considered for the operation and maintenance of the facility.
The company added that it is in talks with an anchor customer who would take the initial phase one capacity.
The results presentation also revealed that Excelerate has ordered modular reliquefaction kit for its vessels to recover excess boil-off gas in an effort to improve revenues and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Excelerate reported improved second-quarter net income of $33.3m up from $29.6m in the same three months a year ago.
The company said the rise was largely due to the impact of various charter rate increases during 2023, increased interest income, which was partially offset by a fall in its Brazil gas sales, and its 173,467-cbm FSRU Sequoia (built 2020) moving to a time-charter in the country.
Net income was also up from the $45.2m logged in the first quarter.
Excelerate said this was mainly due to the dry-docking expenses for its 138,000-cbm FSRU Summit LNG (built 2006) in Bangladesh that was damaged in a storm.
But Excelerate’s second-quarter revenue crashed back from $432.4m to $183.3m.
The company raised its full-year guidance for adjusted Ebitda to between $320m and $340m. Its committed growth capital for investments and projects is expected to range from between $70m and $80m.
Excelerate president and chief executive Steven Kobos said the second-quarter performance reflects the strength of the company’s core regasification business and the value of its “robust and predictable” FSRU and terminal services contract portfolio.
Kobos Excelerate is making “great progress” towards its strategy to grow the company.
“We are investing in new technology to optimise our regasification business, we are scaling our fleet with the addition of our newbuild FSRU Hull 3407, and we are reaching significant milestones in the commercial negotiations for the projects in our prioritised pipeline,” it said.
Excelerate owns 10 FSRUs and has one being built for delivery in June 2026. Steel cutting on this vessel is due to begin in October.
The company claims it controls about 25% of the global regasification capacity of FSRU-based terminals.
