Golar LNG Limited

Golar LNG announced a fourth floating LNG unit order during its second-quarter earnings call on August 13, with the Mark II vessel to be built at CIMC Raffles Shipyard in China and delivered within 2029, making it the earliest available liquefaction capacity anywhere in the world. The order lifts Golar's controlled liquefaction capacity by 41%, from 8.6 million tonnes to more than 12 million tonnes once fully delivered, and management said that if the unit is chartered on terms similar to last year's Esperanza deal, annual earnings capacity could rise 50%, pushing run-rate EBITDA past $1.2 billion by 2030. The company already has an EBITDA backlog of $17 billion locked in through Hilli, Gimi, and the FLNG Esperanza, and commodity-linked income is showing up in the numbers, with Hilli's contribution jumping to $37 million in the quarter from $10 million in the first quarter, helping push EBITDA up 20% sequentially to $127 million. However, the CapEx budget for the fourth FLNG unit came in around $2.45 billion, roughly 10% above the $2.2 billion spent on Esperanza, and that new unit also has no charter yet, so the 50% earnings boost is a target, not a locked-in number. Golar is still equity funding Esperanza, having put in $1.3 billion of its $2.2 billion budget, while carrying net interest-bearing debt of about $1.8 billion, and management's own sensitivity table shows EBITDA falling back toward $1.2 billion if prices settle near $8 per million BTU, well below the $1.9 billion implied by today's $15 forward price.

Golar LNG reported strong second-quarter 2026 results and confirmed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction deal for a fourth FLNG vessel, expanding future liquefaction capacity. The company has secured long-term 20-year charters for its existing FLNG units, providing $17 billion in contracted EBITDA backlog and 20 years of cash flow visibility, which is expected to drive a fourfold increase in EBITDA and contracted free cash flow by 2028. The share price stands at US$52.49 with a year-to-date return of 38.31% and a five-year total shareholder return of 466.94%, though the 90-day return is down 7.98%. A valuation narrative puts fair value at $60.28, suggesting the stock is modestly undervalued, while the current P/E of 32.7x is above the US Oil and Gas industry average of 12.6x and peer average of 16.9x but below a fair ratio of 41.5x.

Golar LNG has signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore for its fourth floating liquefaction natural gas production vessel, at a total budget of around $2.45 billion. Delivery of the vessel to its intended site is anticipated by the end of 2029. The new vessel will be Golar LNG's second to use the MKII design and is planned to provide an annual liquefaction capacity of 3.5 million tonnes of LNG. The company expects to gain efficiencies from repeating the design and constructing both vessels at the same yard, leading to operational synergies. With the addition of this new MKII FLNG, Golar LNG's total controlled liquefaction capacity will increase by about 40% to above 12 million tonnes per annum.

Golar LNG shares have declined 5.2% since its last earnings report, underperforming the S&P 500. The company reported first-quarter 2026 earnings of 49 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 31 cents, while revenues of $137.55 million surpassed the $125.3 million estimate and improved 120% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA rose 158% to $105.57 million, and the board approved a quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share payable on June 10, 2026. Cash and equivalents stood at $1.01 billion, down from $1.15 billion in the prior quarter, and contractual debt increased 81% to $2.70 billion. Analysts have kept estimates largely flat over the past month, with the consensus estimate shifting down 6.35%, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank of 3, or Hold.