Eni extends charter for KNOT Offshore’s shuttle tanker

Italian oil and gas major Eni has extended the charter for KNOT Offshore Partners’ shuttle tanker Torill Knutsen.

KNOT said on Monday that Eni’s subsidiary, Eni Trading and Shipping, exercised two of its one-year options to extend the time charter of the 2013-built aframax shuttle tanker Torill Knutsen until November 2022.

Due to the early exercise of the options, the company granted Eni a further option to extend the time charter by one additional one-year period.

Eni now has the option to extend the time charter by two one-year periods until November 2024.

Gary Chapman, CEO of KNOT Offshore Partners, said: “This early declaration and agreement with Eni further strengthens the partnership’s contracted revenue streams and validates our belief that our vessels remain an essential part of our customers’ supply chains, even in these volatile times“.

KNOT Offshore bought the Torill Knutsen tanker back in 2014.

The company also said that Junya Omoto would replace Takuji Banno on the KNOT Offshore Partners’ board of directors, effective 1 April 2020.

Omoto served as the offshore business group general manager for Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) since 1 April 2020 and was previously the deputy general manager of NYK’s offshore business group.

He joined NYK in 1993 and until 2006 he served in the Container and Logistics divisions in Japan and Hong Kong. In 2007, Omoto joined the Petroleum group and from 2010 he acted as manager of the LNG Group.