Commissioning works commenced at KN‘s LNG reloading station

KN (AB Klaipėdos nafta), the operator of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, says it has commenced the commissioning works at the LNG reloading station after a commissioning cargo was delivered to the station by Cardissa, a bunker vessel owned by Shell Western LNG B.V. (Shell).

As already announced at the beginning of August (link), on completion of procurement of LNG intended for the infrastructure commissioning works, KN concluded a contract with Shell, a multinational energy and petroleum chemistry company. 

Shell‘s Cardissa vessel that arrived to the Klaipėda Seaport on 17 September was filled with the amount of the LNG required for the said works at KN‘s LNG terminal, from ‘Independence’ floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).

According to the contract, 1,000 cubic meters of LNG were reloaded to the bunker vessel. Two of the five storage tanks of the LNG reloading station will be filled with this amount. Shell has acquired the cargo from Lietuvos dujų tiekimas UAB, a Lithuanian company that uses the services of the LNG terminal.

According to Mindaugas Jusius, KN‘s Managing Director, ‘The commissioning works enable us to test the entire infrastructure for the LNG logistics in the Klaipėda Seaport. First, the reloading of LNG from the large terminal to a small-scale LNG carrier, then from the carrier to the LNG reloading station, and finally to LNG tank trucks. Such testing of the process for the first time is highly important for both our service users and us. The success of the test will be a signal to the market that distribution of LNG in Klaipėda has been launched. Our LNG acceptance process operators have already completed special-purpose training. All this means that we are quickly approaching a new phase of KN‘s operations, namely, a small-scale LNG distribution. The new reloading station, as well as the large scale LNG terminal, will be open to all LNG suppliers, already this autumn they will be able to book capacities and to supply, upon start of commercial operations, LNG to customers in the Baltic Region by means of both sea and land transport.‘

‘Today’s event marks a new and significant stage in the history of KN. By exploiting LNG infrastructure more widely and expanding its activities the company is further creating added value for its clients, gas consumers and the main shareholder – the state. The fact that Shell has purchased gas via Lithuanian gas supplying company has proved once again the competitiveness of Klaipėda LNG terminal and its growing perspective”, - says Lithuanian Minister of Energy Žygimantas Vaičiūnas

All the requisite testing of individual components and equipment of the distribution station was completed prior to starting the transfer of LNG from the bunker vessel to the storage tanks. It is estimated that all phases of the LNG reloading station‘s commissioning works will be completed by the end of the autumn, and commercial operations will be launched in the first half-year of 2018 upon approval of the construction completion certificate.

‘Most of the new LNG terminals that were constructed in recent years, or are still under construction, use advanced floating technology, and during a decade since the introduction of the technology the total number of floating LNG terminals (FSRU, FSU and FRU) has almost reached thirty. The Klaipėda LNG terminal is the world’s first floating terminal that has started the provision, at the beginning of this year, of regular commercial services of LNG reloading to small-scale LNG carriers. Now operators of other terminals have chosen this route as well. Upon putting into operation of the KN‘s LNG reloading station where LNG tank trucks will be filled, our terminal will become the world’s first floating terminal providing a full range of integrated LNG logistics services’, says Mindaugas Jusius.