Bermudian-headquartered Ardmore Shipping Corporation has agreed terms for the sale of three 2008-built MR product tankers to German-based Leonhardt & Blumberg for an aggregate price of $40 million.

Following completion of the sales and the prepayment of financing associated with the vessels, the transaction will generate net cash of approximately $15 million to Ardmore, which will be used for general corporate purposes.

Ardmore, which owns and operates product and chemical tankers, will time charter each vessel from Leonhardt & Blumberg for a minimum of two years.

Anthony Gurnee, Ardmore's chief executive officer, said: "The sale is consistent with Ardmore's capital allocation policy while also maintaining our commercial scale and earnings upside.

“Leonhardt & Blumberg is a world-class private shipping group and an excellent industry partner for Ardmore Shipping and we look forward to working with them on future potential business opportunities."

New contracts and extensions for Valaris

Valaris Limited has announced new contracts and contract extensions, with associated contract backlog of $181 million, including:

•Two-year contract extensions with BP in the US Gulf of Mexico for managed rigs Mad Dog and Thunder Horse.

•One-well contract extension with TotalEnergies EP Brazil, offshore Brazil for drill ship Valaris DS-15. The option well is in direct continuation of the current firm programme and has an estimated duration of 100 days.

•ARO Drilling awarded a three-year contract with Saudi Aramco for standard duty modern jack-up Valaris 140. This contract relates to the previously disclosed three-year bareboat charter agreement between Valaris and ARO.

Borr Drilling for debt referral

Borr Drilling Limited has been awarded new contracts and extensions for five of its premium jack-up drilling rigs.

These awards increase the company's backlog by approximately 2,530 days, excluding optional periods. The company's contracted fleet is now 20 rigs out of a total of 23 delivered rigs.

Borr Drilling said it remained in constructive discussions with its lenders in relation to the deferral or refinancing of its debt maturing in 2023 and expects such discussions to be successfully concluded on or before June 30.

Tanker transfers for CoolCo

Cool Company Ltd said the last two acquisitions of eight modern liquefied natural gas tankers from Golar LNG Limited pursuant to the terms of the share purchase agreement between Golar and the company of February 26 had completed.

The tankers acquired are Golar Ice and Golar Kelvin.

Golar LNG announced the formation of CoolCo in December.

CoolCo interim CEO Karl Fredrik Staubo said: “Completion of these final two vessel transfers coincides with an improving chartering environment.

“The market strengthening is driven by increased focus on energy security, low gas storage levels, new environmental regulations effective from 2023 disadvantaging less fuel-efficient tonnage, and rising yard prices for new orders with lead times into 2026.

“CoolCo recently chartered a vessel for 12 months at a rate of around $120,000 per day, 20 per cent higher than the last 12-month charter agreed for a CoolCo vessel in October 2021 and twice the actual rate the vessel earned on its prior 12-month charter.”

Nordic American buoyed by geo-political instability

Nordic American Tankers Ltd has reported solid momentum in the market due to the current political uncertainty.

NAT said it was securing spot contracts for a month or longer at rates above $50,000 a day for its Suezmax vessels.

The company’s operating costs are about $8,000 per day per ship.

NAT said it had a large part of its fleet operating in the spot market.