Norway-based floating LNG specialist Höegh LNG says it will not engage in further new floating LNG (FLNG) developments, but focus on floating storage, and regasification units (FRSUs).
The firm plans to have a fleet of 12 FRSUs by 2019. President and CEO Sveinung Støhle said the move was due to the market outlook for LNG and the current state of the financial markets.
The firm said it would still complete its obligations towards existing FLNG customers but that all FLNG employees will be transferred to the FSRU business.
The result of the move is a US$37 million impairment to the book value of its FLNG assets in Q4 2015, which is mostly related to the offshore FLNG FPSO FEED study that the company completed in 2009, prior to its initial public offering on the stock market in 2011.
Støhle said: "Given the overall market outlook for LNG and the current state of the financial markets, we believe focusing solely on FSRUs is financially and commercially the best strategy for Höegh LNG. We are fully committed to build on our position as the leading FSRU provider, and will take this opportunity to sharpen our focus and strengthen our FSRU team to ensure that we reach our ambition of growing our fleet to 12 FSRUs by 2019."
