Hoegh LNG has taken delivery of its ninth newbuild floating storage and regasification vessel, Hoegh Gannet, ready to start on a contract with Naturgy Energy Group later this month.

The $177 million unit, delivered from South Korean yard Hyundai Heavy Industries, has been contracted for a period of 15 months by the Spanish utility and is also being marketed for further work in the 2019-to-2021 timeframe, according to the Oslo-listed contractor.

The Hoegh Gannet has regasification capacity of 1 billion cubic feet per day and storage capacity of 170 000 cubic metres of liquefied natural gas, which combined make it the largest FSRU built by capacity.

It is the first of two remaining newbuilds to be delivered with a tenth FSRU vessel due to be dispatched from South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries in the second quarter of next year.

Hoegh, led by chief executive Sveinung Stohle, is in talks with potential clients for four possible longer-term charters as it targets fresh work in China where it already has its Hoegh Esperanza FSRU deployed at the Tianjin LNG terminal in China ahead of start-up of operations under a three-plus-one-year charter with CNOOC Gas & Power Trading and Marketing.