LONDON (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based Golar LNG, the liquefied natural-gas tanker company whose chairman is Norwegian billionaire John Fredriksen, posted a first-quarter net loss because of interest-rate swaps and exchange rates.

The net loss was $15.7 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with profit of $54.3 million, or 83 cents, a year earlier Golar said in a statement yesterday.

Earnings from leasing out its ships will be "weak" this quarter as LNG trading slows, it said. Project delays and outages crimped growth in trading of the fuel to eight percent last year from 12 percent in 2006 and no countries are expected to start new production this year, it said, citing industry data.