Golar LNG Ltd (GLNG) 2020 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Golar LNG Limited 3Q 2020 Results Presentation Conference call.

(Operator Instructions) I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Monday, 30th of November 2020.

I'd now like to hand the conference over to first speaker today, Golar's CEO, Mr. Iain Ross.

Thank you, and please go ahead.

Thank you, operator.

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the Golar LNG Q3 2020 results presentation.

My name is Iain Ross, and I'm the CEO of Golar LNG.

Today, I'm joined on the line by CFO Karl Fredrik Staubo, replacing Callum Mitchell-Thomson, who has resigned from his position due to personal reasons.

We'd like to thank Callum for his contribution to Golar.

We're also pleased to have Eduardo Maranhao, CFO of Hygo; and Tor Olav Troim, Chairman of both Golar LNG and Hygo, with us today.

And as usual, we also have Stuart Buchanan, Head of Investor Relations, on call.

I'd like to draw your attention to forward-looking statement on Slide 1. And if we turn to Slide 4, let me give you some highlights before Karl takes you through the numbers in more detail.

Today, we report an adjusted EBITDA of $57 million and revenue of $95 million for the quarter, which is driven by a further solid FLNG performance and a steady result from shipping.

In shipping, we achieved overall time charter earnings of $39,000 per day, which is ahead of guidance, with the TFDEs earning just under $44,000 per day, if you exclude dry dock days.

And we ended the quarter with a shipping revenue backlog of $198 million compared to $147 million at the end of Q3 '19.

Our FSRU LNG Croatia conversion remains on track for handover to our customer, LNG Hrvatska, in December, at which time we expect to release $17 million in cash from the project and a further $30 million of cash in January next year.

Our FLNG operations maintained 100% commercial uptime through the quarter.

FLNG Gimi, force majeure event with BP has ended, resulting in the project schedule being extended by 11 months and with no other changes to contractual terms.

And in downstream, Paul Hanrahan has been appointed as the new CEO of Hygo Energy Transition, that's the new name for Golar Power.

Full capacity payments were earned from the Sergipe Power Station and FSRU Nanook, and more progress has been made towards a Barcarena terminal FID.

Turning to Page 5 and an update on governance, which we take very seriously.

The internal review that was instigated following the allegations against the former CEO of Hygo was completed with no findings of wrong here.

The review has not identified any evidence establishing bribery or other corrupt conduct involving Hygo and confirms solid corporate governance and compliance.

Eduardo will go through this overall time line and provide more detail on Hygo later in the presentation, so more detail on the business segments to follow.

Let me now hand over to Karl to take you through the numbers and more detail on financing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Iain.

I'm looking forward to take on the role as CFO for Golar.

My name is Karl Fredrik Staubo, and I will start by taking you through the summary results on Slide 6.

Shipping TCE for the quarter came in at $39,100 per day, higher than our guidance of $35,000 a day and above Q3 of last year at $35,200.

However, we were seasonally down from Q2, as expected.

FLNG Hilli continued its solid and stable operations with 100% utilization and earnings in line with Q2.

Net loss for the quarter ended at $22 million.

We report a cash position for the quarter of $177 million, of which $100 million is restricted cash related to our letter of credit on the FLNG Hilli and consolidated VIE cash balances related to our sale leaseback financed vessels.

The unrestricted cash position for the quarter of $77 million was negatively impacted by $17 million, due to having to equity fund Gimi CapEx during the BP FM event.

Following the ending of the force majeure event, the draw stop under our $700 million facility available during construction has been lifted, and we have made a $75 million draw, which have replaced the $17 million of equity CapEx, increasing our liquidity post-quarter-end.

This realigns the drawdown ratios to the original debt equity funding ratios.

And adjusting for this equity CapEx installments, our cash position for the quarter would have been $94 million.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $57 million, a beat against consensus at $52.4 million, driven by higher-than-expected shipping rates.

Turning to Slide 7 and adjusted EBITDA development.

Quarter-over-quarter, our EBITDA was down by approximately $10 million from $67 million in Q2 to $57 million in Q3, primarily driven by seasonally lower shipping rates, which went from $45,000 a day in Q2 to $39,000 a day, as mentioned.

We also have the COVID-19-related closure of the shipyard where the Golar Tundra was being dry-docked, which resulted in significant unscheduled off hire during the quarter and contributed to the net reduction in our fleet utilization from 93% in Q2 to 80% in Q3.

As expected, vessel operating expenses at $28.2 million were higher than those at Q2, which came in at $24 million.

The $4 million increase was mainly due to catch-up repairs and maintenance carried out following the lifting of COVID restrictions.

As for our trailing last 12 months EBITDA, we're up from $283 million a year ago to $294 million last trailing months, mainly driven by an average increase in our achieved shipping rates.

Turning to Slide 8 and our corporate financing.

We have 2 corporate facilities maturing before year-end, a $150 million corporate facility secured against our Hygo shareholding and a $30 million margin loan on our shareholding in Golar Partners.

To address these upcoming maturities, we have entered into $100 million committed corporate debt facility secured in our Hygo shares.

This will be drawable at maturity of the $150 million facility that's now maturing.

Furthermore, we are in advanced discussion for an incremental $125 million corporate credit facility drawable upon Hygo IPO.

In addition to these facilities, other key financing events that will increase our available liquidity include contractual drawdown on the Golar Bear facility of an incremental $10 million targeted in January '21.

As Iain explained, the acceptance and delivery of the Golar Viking project converted to an FSRU and on its way to acceptance to LNG Croatia, that will free up net liquidity of $47 million between December 2020 and January '21.

We've also received term sheets for opportunistic refinancings of the vessel Golar Frost and a potential renewal of the maturing GMLP margin loan, which combined, can raise $70 million in liquidity to Golar.

The net potential liquidity effect, if we draw on all of these facilities, will be an incremental $172 million in liquidity after repaying the maturing $180 million of corporate debt.

So we're comfortable with the liquidity situation, assuming we draw on all these facilities, and we think that will create significant flexibility to continue the growth of the company.

Turning to Slide 9. We have an update on our FLNG Gimi conversion funding sources.

We have, as Iain alluded to, extended -- agreed with BP to extend the project by 11 months.

That is expected to come in at an incremental construction cost of $36 million.

Furthermore, we have shifted some of the CapEx to later in the construction period to benefit near-term liquidity.

For next year, the reduction is $7 million in equity requirements before we increase in '22 and '23.

So we pushed the installments slightly up.

We're also happy that the increase in the construction CapEx is not more than the $36 million that we anticipate to be the total increase in construction costs, and we worked hard with our subcontractors to make sure that the increase in costs are not more significant, given the 11-month delay.

That concludes it for the financing section, and I'll now hand over for Iain to run through the shipping section.

Thank you, Karl.

Turning to Slide 11 and shipping.

The quarter commenced with JKM at around $2.15 per mmbtu and quoted TFDE headline spot rates of around $30,000 a day.

The seasonal upswing was slower than usual due to a combination of around 120 U.S. cargo cancellations over the summer, higher than normal European storage levels and weather-related supply interruptions, which continued into early September.

As production resumed late Q3, the rates -- the shipping rates resume their seasonal upswing, albeit lighter and lower than last year.

The quarter ended with JKM at around $5.15 per mmbtu and quoted TFDE headline rates of around $59,000 a day.

Subsequent to that, we have seen JKM above $7 and spot rates briefly above $100,000 for single voyages before dropping back.

Remaining true to our shipping strategy and our focus on utilization is serving us well, our Q3 utilization of 80% is significantly up on Q3 2019.

Our TCE of $39,000 for the quarter, whilst above guidance was, as Karl mentioned, also adversely affected by the Tundra being in drydock for much longer than planned due to that COVID shutdown in Singapore.

And this will spill over into the early part of Q4, which is now, of course, out of drydock.

Additionally, we have built $123 million of shipping backlog this quarter, which you can see on Slide 12.

Utilization going into 2021 is strong with around 2/3 of 2021 fleet days already backed by contract.

And whilst we may sacrifice a little of the upside during the winter months, we expect to more than make up for this during the rest of the year, and we're anticipating a TCE of around $50,000 a day for Q4.

And as LNG prices cycled up, and as mentioned, we did see JKM at over $7 over the last few weeks, the prospect of FLNG development starts to become more interesting.

So let's now have a look at FLNG on Slide 14.

Hilli performed well in the quarter with 100% commercial uptime, as Karl noted, and she has offloaded the 47th cargo.

The annual 2-week maintenance shutdown was completed without incident during the quarter, which I think deserves a mention due to the COVID constraints that the team operated under during that time.

We agreed an amendment to the LTA with Perenco and SNH, which essentially does 2 things for us.

Firstly, it removes the 500 Bcf cap on the contract volume and so converts the contract to an 8-year fixed duration deal.

And secondly, it allows us to invoice for any overproduction during a calendar year, which will amount to around $5 million for the overproduction to the end of last year.

We expect the agreement to be formalized in due course.

And our discussions with Perenco on LNG production volume increase, which is enabled with that amendment, within the remaining term of the contract continue in the right direction.

And we anticipate that Perenco will start its well campaign before the end of Q1 next year in order to prove up the additional reserves to potentially increase utilization of Hilli.

Should we reach agreement with Perenco, there will likely be a new risk aligned tariff payment for that portion of additional volumes rather than on a fixed tariff.

Turning to Slide 15.

On FLNG Gimi, we concluded the FM issue with BP, as Karl mentioned, as a result of a delay to commercial operations of 11 months, but importantly, all other aspects of the contract remain the same, and the impact on the overall budget is minimal and the financing milestones have been restructured, as Karl described.

On the project in Singapore, our contractors are ramped up to over 2,400 people, working within COVID restrictions and getting on with the project.

We expect the next drydock, which will include attaching parts of the large sponsons to the hole to go ahead before the year-end.

On the FLNG business development pipeline, we've experienced a material uplift in the level of interest in FLNG with a number of new inquiries during the quarter.

The 9 opportunities currently being discussed with financially strong counterparties are geographically spread and it include potential deployments in West Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean and the Americas.

We are in active engagement on both conversion and new build options and remain convinced of not only the commercial and schedule benefits of our design, but increasingly of the competitive carbon footprint of our offering.

Clearly, we're focused on delivering Gimi right now.

But these deals do take time to put together, and I'd like to think that there's potential for good convergence between opportunities being ready for FID, possibly and maybe in 2022, and our ability to put together a financing package for the project.

With that, can I hand over to Eduardo Maranhao to take you through the details on Hygo.

Thank you very much, Iain, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

So switching to Slide 18, I just wanted to give a brief recap of the major events that took place over the past 8 weeks.

So at the end of September, our IPO efforts were put on hold as a result of allegations involving our former CEO for actions predating his work at Hygo.

Immediately after that, our Board of Directors engaged with external legal and accounting advisers in order to conduct a detailed internal review of the company's procedures and existing compliance policies.

The final outcome of this review has been delivered in the end of October and has not identified any evidence establishing improper or other corrupt conduct involving Hygo or its executives and confirms solid corporate governance and compliance.

Also in September, our existing power station in Sergipe faced the issues with one of its 4 step-up transformers, which temporarily reduced the available generating capacity from 1.5 gigawatts to 1 gigawatt until the end of the second quarter of 2021 when a replacement transformer is expected to be installed.

We maintained business interruption insurance cover in place, and we do not expect material financial impact from this event.

Also on September 30, Hygo was the only qualified bidder to present a valid offer in the official tender to take over the Bahia terminal from Petrobras.

Petrobras subsequently increased Hygo's perceived integrity risk, leading to a temporary disqualification of its bid.

We have then appealed from this decision and now expect a final outcome from Petrobras before the end of the year.

On October, Paul Hanrahan was appointed as our new Chief Executive Officer.

As a former CEO of AES Corporation, Paul brings extensive experience in international business development in emerging markets, and has the right skill sets to lead our growth prospects.

We remain fully committed to the development of our terminal in Barcarena.

And after our mutual decision to terminate the existing MoU with Norsk Hydro, we have entered into a new agreement with a state-owned gas distribution company of the Pará state, Gás do Pará, with the goal to supply the existing regional demand for cleaner fuels.

Also on November, we have reached an important milestone in the development of the Barcarena terminal when the Brazilian authorities granted us with a final authorization called Outorga to build the 605-megawatt power station and associated LNG terminal.

Just as of last week, we have also been shortlisted in the open season tender to supply large natural gas volumes to Copergas, the state-owned gas distribution company of the state of Pernambuco, which has as its shareholders the State of Pernambuco itself, Mitsui and also Petrobras.

This is a fundamental commercial initiative to accelerate the development of our terminal in Suape.

As seen above, we strongly believe that our ability to develop large-scale projects and enter into long-term partnerships in Brazil remains unchanged.

With our network of strategically located terminals and critical downstream infrastructure, we'll continue on our mission to deliver cheaper and cleaner energy to this huge market.

If I may switch to Slide #19, the idea would be to give an update on some of the development in our small-scale LNG business.

So we continue to execute on our strategy.

The first batches of equipment, including ISO containers, mobile regas units and gas filling stations have arrived in Brazil and much more are expected in the coming weeks.

So we have now over 100 ISO containers in the country.

In order to supply our first volumes, we have partnered with Galileo to build small liquefaction units in the states of Bahia and São Paulo.

And Hygo will be the first company to deliver bio LNG in the country by using biomethane from an existing landfill in São Paulo and transforming it into LNG.

In the south of Brazil, we're also building our strategic distribution hub in the city of Uruguaiana, which will allow us to supply the existing demand of this important region, including the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana.

If I may switch to Slide 20.

I also wanted to give an overview of the general update on some of the terminals that we have been developing in Brazil.

So I wanted to highlight the significant milestones that we have achieved in the Barcarena terminal.

Based on those, we believe that we could be in a position to take a final investment decision in the next couple of months.

I would like to highlight, for example, the issuance of the installation license for the construction of the LNG terminal and associated facilities for the power plant.

We have also been awarded the long-term port concession by CDP for the use of the existing facilities in the Vila do Condé Port in the city of Barcarena.

We have also received binding EPC proposals for the construction of the 605-megawatt power station from leading international suppliers.

Moving over to Suape.

We have also made significant progress over the past quarter.

Subject to the receipt of final installation permits, we could also expect a final investment decision in the next couple of months.

And upon the arrival of the first Avenir vessel expected for next year, Suape is positioned to be the leading distribution center of LNG in Brazil.

Our terminal in Santa Catarina, which I also wanted to highlight, is also coming together.

Preliminary environmental licenses and approvals from both ANTAQ and SPU have been obtained.

An FID is expected before the end of next year.

Lastly, when it comes to Bahia, although we cannot guarantee the outcome of Petrobras' decisions, we are confident that our proposed approach is the best solution to address all the commitments that were made towards the antitrust authorities in Brazil.

It also goes in line with the government's efforts to provide cheaper and reliable gas supply to [the best] local Brazilian market.

So considering the development of all of our terminals, Hygo could be in a position to deliver over 25 million tonnes of LNG in Brazil in 2022.

Thanks, Eduardo.

If we turn now to Slide 21 and our ESG progress, I can highlight a couple of items.

Firstly, the carrier fleet achieved best-ever fuel efficiency during the quarter, resulting in lower CO2 emissions.

And the other point that's new is our recently announced partnership with Black & Veatch, under which we will be jointly exploring opportunities to marinize some of the processes and activities relating to the hydrogen economy.

The initial focus will be on 2 areas: firstly, CO2 management, so it's capture, storage and transport, initially from the LNG supply chain, but equally, it could be from other industrial users; and secondly, floating production of blue ammonia.

So that's ammonia produced using methane for fuel, but capturing the carbon from the exhaust stream.

Two focus areas are clearly related, but there may well be separate market opportunities evolving from the work.

Early days, but it does look interesting.

So summarizing our priorities on Slide 22.

We will focus on opportunistic upside now that the majority of the shipping fleet is on term charter.

In FLNG, our focus is to deliver Gimi safely on time, on budget and to continue progress -- sorry, to continue to progress discussions for potential expansion of Hilli, plus development of our new build Mark III opportunities.

In downstream, Hygo will focus on reaching FID on the terminal, as Eduardo has said, at Barcarena, building out the business in Brazil and pursuing international opportunities, focus on concluding the refinancing activities that Karl discussed, and of course, we'll complete our budget cycle to confirm a sustainable reduction in G&A and then get back to the simplification of the Golar Group structure.

I'm pleased now to hand over to Golar Chairman, Tor Olav Troim, for some remarks prior to Q&A.

Thanks, Iain.

I think I was on this call a year ago and giving a little bit of reflections from the Board.

I want to do it again, particularly in the situation we have been through in the last couple of months.

So it's -- this year, 20 years since John Fredriksen and I went to Singapore and bought a company, which at that time was called Osprey.

The jewel in that company was 5 LNG carriers and a lot of knowledge about how to operate ships, which then could compress natural gas into 1/600 of the volume, freeze it down to 167 degrees Celsius, and it was a pretty cool business in all possible way.

The vision we had when we bought the company was that LNG was an interesting energy going forward.

At that time, nobody talked about CO2 and pollution.

Renewable business were extremely small.

And the reason we liked the opportunity that you could transport large volume of energy from one part of the world to another part of the world.

We noticed that the energy and gas prices were very different in different countries.

Poor countries had -- with high growth in population typically had high power prices and paid too much for power, effectively.

LNG created a kind of bridge from cheap gas reserve to high gas price power market.

But we were far, far too early.

It actually took 15 years before the gas cartel lost control over LNG production, and LNG became a commodity.

In the meantime, the production cost for terminals on LNG production came down.

LNG became cheaper.

Golar was a pioneer in this business converting the first floating regas terminal and also delivering the first successful FLNG vessel.

The FLNG vessel we have working for Perenco in Cameroon today is producing gas which would otherwise would have been flared or reinjected.

For me, that's sustainable value creation.

We didn't have [true] environment problem on board when we bought Osprey, but the focus the world have today on CO2 reduction has created a new world, at least in part of the world.

It's important to know that 85% of all energy in the world is still produced from hydrocarbon.

For the next 20 to 30 years, hydrocarbon will produce a material part of the world's energy with a different kind of hydrocarbons.

If an alumina refinery in Brazil replace heavy fuel plant with LNG, that can save 750,000 tonnes of CO2 on a yearly basis.

Add to the fact that they will also save significant energy cost, and it looks like a very easy decision to make.

We can sit in Europe and in U.S.A.

and we can drive our Teslas and think that its renewable market will take off and the world will change very, very quickly.

Just remember that amount of energy consumption in these market hasn't gone up for 10 years.

20 years ago, China consumed approximately half of the energy consumption in U.S. Since that time, the energy consumption in U.S. have actually gone down, while the energy consumption in China has gone up 3x and are today approximately 50% larger than U.S.

India has doubled its energy at the same time.

And remember that the major power development in this country is still coal.

Coal, between 65% to 70% of the energy consumed in these nations are coal fired.

It's coal because it's cheap.

For the developing world, energy is affordability.

It's their way out from poverty.

When you come to Delhi, you understand that pollution is what the politicians -- isn't what the politicians are focusing on.

They take what they can get for the money they have.

The good news is that the new technology is making LNG cheaper.

If [somewhere] we traded LNG, as Iain said, for less than kind of $2 per mmbtu, which is $10 oil, $10, $12 oil, you're cutting 30% of the CO2 emission, you're cutting 70% of the particle emission, and you're cutting 100% of the stocks if you can convert anything from fuel to LNG.

And we have something healthy and something cheap and you have a growth commodity, and it is a commodity you grow 10% a year.

There's not a mining company in the world today, you know, thinking about switching from diesel (inaudible) fuel to LNG.

Every day, you're reading stories about shipping companies who are now building massive container vessels, smaller boat carriers, whatever they are, they're converting into LNG.

They do it because it's cheaper, it's cleaner.

They expect the carbon tax to hit them.

And they're also doing it for the fact that the infrastructure for global distribution of LNG is now coming together.

In China, the import in the COVID year is up more than 12%.

Last month, it's up 25%.

They already had 450,000 trucks working on LNG in that country, and that's the second leg of the energy transformation, the transformation from coal to LNG.

In India, they just announced last week that they're now going to build a massive infrastructure for LNG, including 1,000 petrol stations.

I'm proud of how the team in Golar have delivered under Iain's stewardship.

Technically, they are as good as we can get them.

I'm proud when companies like Exxon and BP comes to stay in our offices for several years to learn about the FLNG technology.

I'm proud of the work done by the shipping team to reduce the risk in our shipping portfolio and to cover and to get contract with serious solid partners.

I'm proud when I come to see the owner of Perenco, a private oil company, who produced 485,000 barrels.

I meet the guy who are extremely thankful for what we have pioneered together on the Hilli.

I'm proud of the fact that the people in Brazil over the last year have built a pipeline in the fifth largest nation in the world, a pipeline, which might, in 3 years, be bigger than Petrobras LNG.

I'm proud of the fact that they now, in couple of weeks, will produce biofuel, fueling trucks from the landfill states in São Paulo, and have been working exclusively with the biggest petrol distribution in Brazil.

What I'm not so proud of is the way we have financed and market this company.

We have a lot to learn from some of our other competitors, with rate as close to 100x book, while we are trading at 60% of book.

When you're building power station and FLNG costing more than $1 billion, and it takes you 4 years before you see any cash, you are in need of a strong liquidity buffer.

And even if the Board and management know that we have flexibility in our balance sheet to sort out these financings, investors shouldn't have to bother about short-term liquidity events.

Their focus should be on the 20-year cash flow coming towards them and the opportunity that gives for a stable long-term dividend stream.

As Chairman of the company, I should take the main responsibility for the fact that too much time in this company have been spent on these matters.

But when you have values, you have liquid, you can get liquidity.

You can borrow on your house, when you know you have rented it out for the next 25 years.

And you can balance amortization of that bank loan with your rental income and still have money left over.

That's the flexibility we have.

With the Hygo stake, based on the IPO price range, we will have a value of 900 plus or a Gimi vessel with a 10x multiple is worth $2.2 billion, there are significant borrowing base.

Let me finish with some words about the recent events.

We are all sad that Callum Mitchell-Thomson decided to leave the company.

We liked Callum both personally and professionally.

He came with new views.

He came from the House of Lords and is probably going back to the political world.

He took the decision to leave after 6 months based on a personal life preference, which he also confirmed to some of our largest investors.

And he left the company with a nice gesture that he will always remain an enthusiastic supporter of Golar and the team.

I'm pleased to say that his role has been -- currently been taken over by Karl Staubo, who knows the company well -- very well -- and, who, as late as last week, confirmed his ability to deliver attractive financing to the company.

Let me also talk about the Brazilian events, which have hit us hard on September 23 when we were meant to price the Hygo IPO and the book actually was covered.

This led to the fact that the former CEO, Eduardo Antonello, he was totally instrumental in building Hygo from day 1, had to leave the company.

The accusation against Antonello is linked to events who happened 5 years before he joined our company.

The Board of Hygo has, from day 1, meant that this investigation has not in any was indicated any wrongdoing was done with Hygo.

However, the Board started an external review of business, close to 50 people were involved in 5 weeks coming through to the company from [A to Z], no wrongdoing was found.

It was 4 weeks of hell, with a lot of sleepless nights for a lot of us.

And I'm pleased to say that even if it's still suffering from being underserved dragged into something, which we should never have been a part of, that the business is getting back to normal.

We have, subsequent to the event, concluded a lot of new business in Brazil, as talked about by Maranhao, including being awarded critical installation licenses from Brazilian authorities, signed deals with state-owned companies.

The venture with BR are progressing well, and we expect, as Maranhao said, to take FID on the Barcarena terminal prior to the year-end.

We are, in addition, progressing very well on some of the international ventures.

I'd like to thank our Board member, Paul Hanrahan, for stepping in and taking over the CEO role.

Paul used to run AES, a Fortune 500 company, for 10 years and certainly have the skill sets and energy to help us make Hygo into that industry leader in energy transition we've truly deserved to be.

Both the Hygo Board and the Board of Golar LNG are fully committed to complete the IPO process.

The SEC documents have been updated with recent events and have been reviewed by auditors and lawyer, but have so far not been filed.

The timing of the IPO will be driven by market conditions, ongoing business operation and business development activities.

As a result of the delay of the Hygo IPO, Golar has been approached by industrial players which have expressed interest in different transactions involving Hygo and Hygo assets.

The Board of Golar and the Board of Hygo will consider this request, but the main track is to develop the company and the great potential we see in this business as an independent company through an IPO.

People have today an extreme focus on the new energy driver like hydrogen, ammonia and others.

Golar entered into this [venture], as Iain mentioned to you, and we have done it with a very credible engineering partner, Black & Veatch.

We want to be an energy transformation company.

However, I've learned one thing through my experience in LNG, 20 years, it's what that energy transformation took, we are today the only independent, fully integrated LNG company developing from well to grid.

It's our vision to maximize the value of that strategic position over the next 10 to 20 years, with strong focus on building LNG infrastructure in emerging markets.

We don't want to wait 20 to 30 years for costs to come down on hydrogen production, as it has with LNG over the last 20 years, when we really can make good business building the LNG infrastructure today.

And we can sign 25-year deals with LNG majors and with [BPIs], with -- at the -- on a EBITDA basis of around 5 and [the limiting], we found a very lucrative business.

Target is now to build the size of our platform so big that the new instrument of financing becomes available for us.

That should come with increased EBITDA, which is already programmed into this company by the $6 billion in EBITDA backlog we have secured.

We need to convert from project financing to corporate financing, and we need to simplify the complexity of the corporate structure, which is a clear target for the Board.

We truly support the analyst opinion that the value of this company is significantly higher than the current share price.

And rest assured that the Board will do anything they can in order to materialize that differential.

That might include direct distribution of assets, sale of assets, demerger, or whatever it takes in order to get the underlying value of this thing up.

If we can deliver cheaper and cleaner energy to the world and make a solid longer-term return, I think we have a unique, good business model.

We know it's time for all of us in Golar to convert a good business model and a great integrated platform into a solid return to shareholders.

You truly deserve it, and we have a job to do.

Thank you.

Thanks, Tor Olav.

And with that, I'd like to now hand back to the operator for questions.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Ben Nolan from Stifel.

First, let me say, I appreciate the color that you gave on all of the various projects as it related to Hygo and all of the different various things you're doing in Brazil.

I did want to ask, first of all, on -- you'd mentioned the Sergipe power plant had a transformer issue.

Could you maybe talk through a little bit -- and appreciating that it's covered by insurance, but could you maybe talk through a little bit what that might mean with respect to cash flows and earnings from Hygo, from the business until it's resolved?

Sure.

Ben, this is Eduardo here.

So as I mentioned before, we expect that the transformer will be replaced by the end of the second quarter of next year.

And until then, we continue to receive our capacity payments according to the PPA.

So the capacity payments remain unchanged.

As you may recall, we do benefit from a 60-day notice whenever the power plant is called for dispatch.

And in the event of the power plant being called for dispatch, we would have to compensate [remake] exposure between the current spot electricity prices and the prices that we are paid in the contract at the point in time.

That exposure is then covered by insurance, as mentioned before.

So we do not expect a material impact in the event of not being called for dispatch.

And in the event of being called for dispatch, we are covered by insurance for that.

Okay.

That's helpful.

And then secondly for me, just as it relates to the 2/3 of the shipping book that is now contracted for next year, and I appreciate that probably some of that's on floating rate basis, but is there any color that you might be able to give us on the type of rate that you've been able to aggregately secure for that 2/3 of the business for next year?

Ben, it's Iain.

So you're right, we do have ships on index-linked charters, couple of ships that potentially could be in the spot market, but the vast majority of the fleet is on a fixed rate structure, some of it on up to a year and some of it on a slightly longer.

We're not guiding to longer-term TCEs, but I think it's fair to say that the structure that we've put in place and our focus on through year TCE is we're moving in the right direction.

And I think directionally, we wouldn't want to be going backwards from what we've achieved this year.

Okay.

So better year-over-year, I guess, is how we should think about modeling it for that portion, yes?

At least as good as.

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Webber.

So there's obviously -- there's a ton to swing at here.

But I might as well start with Hygo.

And maybe, Tor, I know you referenced as being a personal issue, I guess, a personal issue with regards to Callum, but can you just confirm that his departure is in no way related to what happened with Hygo this fall?

Yes.

Okay.

Good.

And then with regards to the review, I think...

I think I specifically said that we have been in contact with some of the biggest shareholders and expressed why he's leaving.

It's not related to that.

Okay.

Yes.

Just the timing alone kind of bears the question.

But in terms of that review, I mean, it certainly seems like -- I know there was a pretty lengthy review in terms of digging into some of the details in Brazil pre-IPO and then certainly kind of post-IPO, were you guys able to coordinate it all with Brazilian authorities?

I'm trying to think about an eventual Hygo IPO, if you do go down that road, to what degree can you formally lift any potential overhang there.

I guess maybe the right way to ask that question is, has there been an ongoing dialogue with any of the authorities in Brazil with regards to the LNG business specifically?

Or have they made -- have they given you any comments there to you all?

Absolutely, Michael.

This is Eduardo here.

As I mentioned during the presentation, we do not have any impediment to continue to operate and to do business in Brazil.

And I think that has been clearly stated by the number of different transactions that we have entered since all the events took place.

So I can refer to MOUs that have been signed with the state-owned entities, licenses and authorizations that have been granted by the Federal Government.

Right.

No.

But these are all signed -- part of the initial is -- I mean those were all signed subsequently to the initial issues to begin with.

So I'm not sure if that data stream actually validates the question I'm asking.

I'm really just asking whether -- were you able to coordinate with the authorities in Brazil with regard to that -- with that independent review anyway?

Well, when it comes to the authorities, we have not been questioned or we have not been asked to provide any further explanation to that.

I mean the events that happened with Antonello referred to him on a personal level and do not indicate the company in any way.

Sure.

Yes.

Okay.

Just to maybe pivot, and Tor, you mentioned in your remarks, something I think we all kind of suspected that you guys would have been approached probably immediately from interested parties around other strategic options for that Brazilian business, that I think most people kind of view as kind of the crown jewels of the EM kind of Frontier state energy transition.

If you're in a unique position in the sense that you actually got almost completely done with an IPO and then subsequently had to pull it, is the right way to think about the valuation benchmark you would use to evaluate strategic interest that value you would have gotten in the IPO?

And is that how you're looking at it and how we should think about it, if someone can come in and kind of beat that bid?

Is that the right way to think about when you'd pull the trigger on maybe some other strategic transaction?

Yes, I would say, if you think about it that way.

We had an IPO range which was between 1.8 and 2.1.

But Golar wasn't selling -- neither Golar or Stonepeak were selling any shares.

We were issuing primary shares.

We were not selling any shares.

So from that point of view, you can probably assume that we think that the value can be higher, and thereby, we do not consider any value lower price for any of these assets.

I think we know what it's worth.

If anything, it's probably, I would say, that with the development we know how, I think we continue to build value.

It was one month of hell, but I think we are now on track again.

I'm super happy with the team.

I think Paul Hanrahan also brought in some of the guys that he used to work together with, and they're doing an excellent job getting this up and running.

And I think when it comes to things which are panicking, I think it's going to be -- I shouldn't say this, but I think it's going to be very hard, for instance, for Norsk Hydro to develop that thing with the LNG without being in contact with Hygo.

And I think they clearly see that there is no alternative.

We've spent 5 years from permitting this thing.

Got you.

Well, let me sneak one more in here for Iain.

You mentioned the Gimi and BP and Kosmos recently downscaled Tortue to 5 million tonnes, which could imply there's a second FLNG unit that could potentially be in play there.

Is that your understanding?

And then to where would that opportunity rank within those 9 or 10 projects that you mentioned you guys are looking at?

So Mike, it's not our practice to comment on anything other than contracted work that we've announced; and as mentioned many times before and with specific reference to Gimi, any dealings that we have with BP do remain under strict NDA.

But I do refer you, as you've mentioned, BP's public statements on the subject, it would be no surprise for you to see that the cost structure of any future phase is important.

And then I'd simply repeat that our view that Golar's floating LNG solutions are cost schedule and carbon competitive, so we keep pushing for opportunities to discuss our competitiveness with a large number of -- large and financeable counterparties.

I would say that speaking specifically and hypothetically about BP, our portfolio of potential FLNG customers is very heavily weighted to large companies that we can back finance against and that can lift projects, particularly when you look at their ability to take the cargoes themselves.

So any company that has the characteristics of being able to sort out their own offtake and give us a good security package with which we can finance the project, then we're very, very interested in speaking to them.

So I think Iain and the guys have done a great job selling this to the majors.

And I think there is probably a lot of majors who are afraid of building another Prelude.

So from that point, they are looking at solutions which work.

And I -- when you see that we have delivered 47 cargoes with Hilli and the number of cargoes from Prelude is probably kind of less than half of it, and you see the cost differences.

I think people are now searching for cheaper solutions from the majors, which works, and I think our team have that credibility.

[So for the full year, Iain has] today has talked the difference from what it was 2 years ago.

Yes, it certainly seems like the opportunity set is actually kind of quietly expanding this part of the cycle, so good to hear.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean Morgan from Evercore.

I think my first question probably is best suited to Eduardo, and it was a question on the Bahia lease with Petrobras.

And so I'm just wondering, with the bid acceptance from Petrobras, is that -- that's ongoing?

And are there other counterbids out and outstanding that you guys are sort of competing against at this point?

Or are you the last -- sort of the last man standing on that?

And also maybe just help clarify what this ruling by the Brazilian Mines and Energy Administration related to Bahia means?

Is Petrobras dragging their feet because they're not really anxious to lease this asset?

Or is it more just contractual legal issues?

So let me just try to clarify here what exactly was the Bahia terminal tender.

So we were the only company which was qualified to present a commercial bid and that took place on September 30.

We presented a commercial offer, which basically met all the commercial, technical and other regulatory requirements posed by Petrobras.

Just on the day after that, Petrobras, on the grounds of perceived high integrity risk for Hygo, they disqualified Hygo from the process.

But we have remained as the only one that have presented a commercial offer.

So based on that, we have then appealed against that decision from Petrobras and we continue to discuss a final outcome for that process.

I'm not in a position to comment what were the reasons behind Petrobras' position to take that decision.

But we firmly believe that there were no reasonable grounds for disqualifying Hygo from the process.

Okay.

And is Petrobras obligated to find a lessor for this facility at some point by the Brazilian state?

Yes, they are.

As part of the commitment that was made towards the antitrust authority, Petrobras has the obligation to lease the terminal for a minimum period of 3 years and that lease should take place in the next few months.

Okay.

And then one for Iain on the Hilli.

I'm just trying to understand the removal of the cap by SNH.

What was the purpose of the cap in the first place?

And was there any concession that needed to be made?

I think you said it was an 8-year, so it's just a continuation of the existing contract with these newer terms and increased overcapacity.

That's right.

So the original contract, if you'll recall, had an endpoint stated as the earlier of 500 Bcf through the vessel or 8 years.

And as we've been producing a little over the annual amount each year, that would have potentially brought the contract to an end a few months early.

So what this has done is it's moved the contract to a firm fixed 8-year duration, and we've got about 5.5 years left of that.

But importantly, there's 2 things that come out of it.

One is that we are allowed now to be paid for our overproduction.

So we've made about $5 million of overproduction up to the end of 2019, and we will bill the amount for 2020 in January next year when that's calculated.

So that's something that will run through the contract.

And then secondly, importantly, with that cap being lifted, it means there's no barrier to being able to come up with a deal that would allow us to put more volume through the Hilli.

Okay.

And that -- I think you said it's around $5 million of overproduction through the end of '19.

So does that revenue recognition all happen in 4Q of '20?

I think it will happen in 1Q -- it could happen in 4Q '20 if we've invoiced it by then.

We can confirm that later.

Our next question comes from the line of Randy Giveans from Jefferies.

So looking at the liquidity events, I guess a few questions.

What are the terms for the new $100 million credit facility against Hygo?

And for the Frost refinancing, that's going to raise an additional maybe $40 million, and you say the margin loan, an additional $30 million.

So is this your decision to push these refinancings until the first quarter?

And how likely is that margin loan to be upsized and completed in the next few months?

Maybe, Karl, if you could take those.

Yes, sure, Randy.

So the terms of that -- sorry.

The terms of the facility is LIBOR plus 500 bps, and it's a nonamortizing bullet facility that we have on the corporate level.

When it comes to the margin loan, it's a question whether we would like to leverage the shares or not.

As you know, we are repaying the margin loan now in the mid of December, and we can obviously approach the same banks or a subset of those banks to renew the margin loan.

As Tor said previously, not that there's any immediate plan to do so, but if you don't have leverage on certain shareholdings, you can, at a later stage, consider to also distribute shareholdings to your shareholders, whether that is at a later stage, either GMLP or Hygo, it's something that we are considering, but such facility is in place today and should certainly be able to be put in place.

When it comes to the $40 million net liquidity release from the potential refinancing of Frost, we received 2 different term sheets, both of which just given the credit processes of such refinancings is more likely to occur early in the new year as opposed to now, but one of them we think is extremely attractive, and we're pushing ahead in that process.

But we also -- we know that it takes two to tango on refinancing our ship, and therefore, we're guiding on a Q1 event on Frost.

It could, of course, be pushed earlier.

But then again, I think a lot of lenders find it easier to finance new initiatives early in the new year as opposed to late in an old area if you want to think about it like that.

Got it.

Okay.

And then for that nonamortizing credit facility, the LIBOR plus 500 basis points, that's just 1-year term?

It's 1 plus 1, is what we have engaged with.

Got it.

All right.

And then if we can go back to the LNG shipping backlog, it increased by $123 million.

Can you provide a little more details on those charters?

Are they all fixed?

All floating?

And kind of what are the durations of them?

So the majority of the new backlog, in fact, I think all of the new backlog is fixed duration.

And the duration, I think the longest one is a couple of years.

Most of them are around about a year, and there's a couple that might be somewhere in between.

Got it.

Good deal.

Thanks, Randy.

Your next question comes from the line of Craig Shere from Tuohy Brothers.

Just want to clarify, the Perenco updated agreement does not allow for reduced annual cash flow if volumes are lower, does it?

And does the agreement eliminate potential to get upsized and extended terms that could support a favorable project refinancing?

There's no linkage to project financing that I'm aware of that would preclude that.

And I can come back to you on the -- if we underproduce, I don't think we've really contemplated that with the way the vessel is going, but I don't believe -- the way that the contract is structured, we're paid for availability and throughput.

It's just that we've been putting more through and so the contract has been restructured for that.

But let me come back to you on that, Craig.

Stuart will follow-up with you in the detail.

I'm sorry, I just don't know the answer.

Okay.

And on the project finance question, what I meant was, if you had upsized it and made it a 15-year agreement, obviously, it would be a no-brainer to be able to get better financing terms on the project.

Whereas if it's a little more variable and flexible, even if you're going to make more EBITDA, it's harder to replace it.

We are focused right now on increasing the immediate throughput on Hilli rather than thinking about extending the contract because the latent value that sits in that vessel, we want to do what we can to get more volume through that vessel.

And the outcome from that goes straight to our bottom line, and that's our immediate focus.

So we're not really considering extensions at this state in the game.

Sorry, this is Karl, just to comment on your previous question.

The revenue cannot come down on Hilli under the revised schedule.

So it is -- as Iain said, we're paid for the capacity and being there and it cannot come down.

Thanks, Karl.

That's good to know.

On Hygo, is there potential to renew the Norsk Hydro aluminum project MoU after the Barcarena FID and a successful Hygo IPO?

And could we see Hygo contract for FLNG itself as far as offtake in the next couple of years?

Okay.

So with regards to Norsk Hydro, what I can say is that we continue on an active dialogue with them.

And our decision is to take the project ahead and move on with a potential FID before the end of the year, are not connected entirely to the discussions with Norsk Hydro.

So we might be in a position to move ahead with the project without their contract.

With regards to the potential FLNG supply to any Hygo project, I think this is, of course, one of the potential synergies that we believe that could be achieved.

And we do contemplate it in some potential projects, especially in the north of Brazil.

But this is something that is very premature and very preliminary as of today.

Great.

And just to clarify there, I guess my thinking was if you FID Barcarena, you're the only game in town.

There's just no way for these guys to convert, as they had promised the local state, to the more emission-friendly natural gas fuel without you.

So I guess what I'm asking is that if you do go ahead and FID in the next month or 2, do you think that there's decent opportunity for Norsk Hydro to return to the table in coming quarters?

I think what you should do is you should call Norsk Hydro if they have any uncertainties.

And I don't think -- enough has been said about Hydro.

If you see the location for our terminal, it's effectively outside the door of Norsk Hydro's plants.

I think I'm hopeful when this thing is settling down, that it is possible to get that back in the fold.

But of course, we don't take anything for granted.

The next question comes from the line of Ken Hoexter from BVA (sic) [BofA].

Well, maybe towards just your view -- you mentioned your kind of view on governance is primary, but yet, you're on your fourth CFO here in 2 years and fourth CEO in 5 years.

I guess just going back to some of the questions before, what's the concern here just in lack of continuity, given that much shuffling and to give visibility on the steady hand guiding -- continuing to guide the company?

I think when you're saying we are on our fourth CFO, that's not totally right because the CFO we had before, Graham Robjohns, he was with us with for 20 years.

So he has played different roles.

So I don't think -- that's the guy Callum took over from.

So I don't think necessary that's right.

We have had 2 for 20 years effectively.

I think it changed that a little bit.

But Iain has been here in 3 years, 3.5.

But of course, turnover is never good.

And this is no doubt that this is a kind of challenging place to work.

It is hard work, and there is an entrepreneurial company with a hard drive, and I can admittedly saying that to have an actively involved share might be painful from time to time.

Iain's laughing at me.

So -- but I think that's what we were used from the Fredriksen group that we are actively as both of us onboard, and it works.

But the other thing when you're saying all the alterations, also all the Chief Executives who was in the company, they normally came back in various several times, like Doug and like Gary and all the people.

So I take your point.

But you're not correct in your facts because we haven't changed CFO 4 times, at least.

But it's obviously a concern.

It's less of a concern that the guy leaves after 6 months than a guy leaves after a couple of years because, of course, it also limited what he could certainly jump into.

But we all liked Callum.

And I think both Iain and I try to convince them to stay, but kind of from personal reasons, he said that he wanted the different life.

Okay.

But I mean, factually, in that seat, it is numerically right but from Tienzo to Rob Johns to Callum to Karl.

But -- okay.

So -- but I get your point in terms of still at the company for a while.

Now just let me flip over, Iain, to the -- your thoughts on the cost from the BP delay, you mentioned the $36 million, can you maybe detail those costs, if I've got that right?

And is the shipyard fully operational now and what those costs are associated with?

Yes.

Ken, so the shipyard is fully operational.

They -- it's quite amazing what they're doing in terms of their own -- and it comes from the Singaporean government to start with.

They have very strict rules around how they transport people.

So let me give you an example.

A lot of the workers live in dormitories.

And they sleep in the same area of the dormitory as their fellow workmates for a specific area of the project.

So not only is it a specific area of the yard, it's a bit of the ship that they're working on.

And they go from their dormitories, to their canteen facility in a bus directly to their work area, they stay with their workmates all day and then they come back and they can sort of rinse and repeat.

And the idea behind that is if there is a COVID case, they can isolate a unit very quickly and then deal with it.

So we were down to less than 100 people during the 4-month shutdown that we experienced in Singapore, and they were really on care and maintenance activity.

We're now up to 2,450 as of today, working on the project, which is higher than it was before, we slowed down and back on track.

In terms of the additional cost, the $36 million, a lot of that has gone into storage, passivation and care of equipment that was ready to ship from vendors, plus additional time-related costs, as you might imagine, you've got certain fixed costs to just continue, and they've gone out 11 months.

So as a percentage of the overall budget, $36 million on $30 million, is pretty good under the circumstances.

Great.

And then lastly, just maybe just on -- going on Hygo, the key risks for the FID at Barcarena and Suape, Eduardo, you mentioned kind of some of the things might be coming over the next few weeks.

Is there a chance of delay or any other issues or of not getting the FIDs or anything else that could delay that process?

We are highly confident that the progress made in Barcarena to date put us in a very good position to take a final investment decision in the next couple of months.

When it comes to Suape, we believe that there are still some regulatory approvals that are expected in the coming weeks and could be a main driver for that decision.

The next question comes from the line of Gregory Lewis from BTIG.

Iain, I guess I just had a question.

In kind of going through the prepared remarks, it sounds like -- and I'm going to look for a little bit of color around what's been talked about over the last few quarters in terms of strategic reviews and kind of repositioning the company.

Is it safe to assume that -- and realizing that the capital markets can be fickle and things are always in flux in the capital markets, but is the right way to think about the event path here for Golar in trying to crystallize value, is it all contingent on Hygo, the IPO before we think about other things like the MLP and the conventional fleet?

Just kind of curious any color around you could give us around that.

Well, let me kind of -- if I think about our sort of enabling strategic plan, it hasn't really changed much over the last year.

And as Tor mentioned, we'll see the sum of the parts of the business equating more to the value recognized in the market.

But to achieve that vision of creating separate investable businesses, there's a few things that we are focused on.

Let me list them, there's 7 or 8 of them.

First of all, keeping operations running safely and the satisfaction of the customers.

Secondly, working hard to maximize the full year shipping income.

So that's a change of pushing quarter-by-quarter.

We're looking at it through the course of the year.

Thirdly, delivering LNG Croatia safely on time and on budget before the end of the year to deliver that $47 million in cash and take on the 10-year operations and maintenance contract.

Number four, maximize throughput on FLNG Hilli whilst on contract with Perenco to maximize that volume we can get through and therefore, the revenue.

Fifth, we've talked about delivering Gimi safely, on time and on budget to commence our 20-year contract with BP, and our share of that EBITDA is around $150 million per year.

Sixth, developing the FLNG portfolio to create that realistic and investable set of project opportunities, considering both Mark I conversion and Mark III new builds, we've talked a little bit about that already, but we think that our FLNG portfolio, backed by such high-quality customers can create interesting investment opportunities for potential partners going forward.

Seventh, and it has been commented on before, the future of Hygo is going to be determined by the Board of Hygo and market conditions.

And eighth, we'll dabble in new technology to make sure that we're right there on the fringes of things that are happening in the overall market.

These are the things that I'm focusing on, on a day-to-day basis, and they feed into considerations that the Board may have.

And Tor, I don't know if you want to add anything.

No.

I think that was a good sum-up for the day-to-day.

Obviously, the world change every day.

I think what has been a problem for us is, of course, we have try to kind of spin-off the shipping activity several times.

That has been difficult because that's not really the business we love to be in long term.

But I think by reducing the risk and by covering it up with charter, we have at least increased the downside risk in that business.

When it comes to why we're preferring Hygo, no, it's because we are ready to go.

So we can go effectively any day.

And I think you will see us going pretty soon.

And that's why we're giving priority to that first.

And then when it comes to -- if you want to do anything, as described in some of the -- looking for a partner to build the FLNG business going forward, and you really want to get Hilli train 3 up and running, you want to do some more stuff with BP, you want to build a bigger portfolio before you bring in a partner.

So -- but I think we are pragmatic.

If we can keep the upstream and downstream model together in one way or the other, I think it's great because then you have the edge when gas prices are low and high.

The midstream is not our business going forward, and it shouldn't be, but there are no kind of structuring talks to other people as well about doing something.

So let's see.

But you're right, Hygo is priority one because that's on the block right now.

Thanks.

And with that, I'd like to draw the call to close due to time constraints.

Thank you for your participation and interest in Golar.

Please stay safe.

We look forward to sharing our progress with you next quarter.

And with that, I'll hand back to the operator.

Thank you, everyone.

That does conclude our conference for today.

Thank you all for participating.

You may all disconnect.