OSLO (Bloomberg) ? Golar LNG Ltd., a Bermuda-based owner of liquefied natural-gas tankers, said first-quarter profit rose 58 percent after it took delivery of an 11th vessel and shipping rates increased.

Net income climbed to $27.9 million, or 43 cents a share, compared with $17.7 million, or 27 cents a share, a year earlier, the Bermuda-based company said. Operating revenue, the money Golar made from hiring out its tankers, rose 44 percent to $55.3 million from $44.2 million.

"They had a fairly solid quarter because the spot shipping market was temporarily tight, so they got good utilisation of their ships," said Philip Dodge, an analyst at Stanford Group in Boca Raton, Florida.

Two of the Golar's ships are leased out on short-term hires, two are leased to Royal Dutch Shell Plc with the price determined by daily hire rates. There is no recognised, publicly reported index of LNG tanker rates, meaning each hire to Shell is agreed to on a case-by-case basis.

Norwegian billionaire John Fredriksen, the largest shareholder in Frontline Ltd., the world's second-largest tanker company, is chairman of Golar. Frontline reported a 20 percent drop in first-quarter earnings on May 26.