Belgian owner and operator of gas carriers Exmar has obtained an extension of the USD 30 million bridge loans that were originally set to expire on September 30, 2019.
The extension comes on the back of the company’s discussions with Sinosure regarding the approval for the partial release of the debt service reserve account in respect of the USD 200 million loan with Bank of China and Deutsche Bank. The discussions are still ongoing for the partial release of the DSRA before the end of the year “but so far no agreement has been reached”.
Additional factors include the company’s ongoing discussions with several financial institutions for a refinancing of an FSRU unit.
The financing of the FSRU under a sale and leaseback with CSSC has been signed, but not executed yet pending the security documentation requiring charterer’s signature.
“Gunvor has raised some legal arguments that could lead to arbitration, which further delay the signature of security documents and hence the drawdown under the CSSC financing before the end of the month of September as originally planned. An extension of the drawdown period has been obtained until the end of October,” Exmar said.
Exmar provided an update on its Tango FLNG unit, saying that it has been receiving feed gas from YPF since September 9, 2019 and has been producing LNG to its full capacity since then. In the first two weeks of operations, the Tango FLNG has transferred 25,000 cubic meters of LNG to a storage vessel chartered by YPF.
The company added that the LPG market has significantly improved over the last months with the VLGC market hovering around USD 50,000 a day for the month of September, compared to an average of USD 30,000 per day for the first half of 2019. The midsize market is following a similar trend.