Klaipėda LNG terminal capacities fully booked until gas year end
The favourable situation in the international gas markets has been determining the highest operative efficiency of the LNG terminal since the launch of its activities. The terminal capacities are now fully booked for the rest of the Gas Year. The Gas Year is calculated from 1 October of the current year until 30 September of the following year, Klaipėda LNG terminal says in a press release.
In April, about 1.48 TWh of gas were regasified in the LNG terminal (28.3% more than the amount of gas regasified in the same period last year), and in May, a total of 1.75 TWh of gas were regasified (21% more than in the last year’s May).
June was even more efficient for the terminal: it accepted 2 big gas carriers with 278 thousand m3 of LNG and 3 small gas carriers with 28.5 thousand m3 of LNG. Since the beginning of this year, Klaipėda LNG terminal has accepted 23 gas carriers for various LNG reloading operations.
“The demand of Klaipėda LNG terminal is determined by the favourable situation in the international markets. It has been several months that the regasified LNG outbids the gas imported via remote long-distance pipelines, therefore, the importers having access to a great number of sources use the emerging opportunities. June was the most intensive month in terms of the use of the terminal, what considerably determined the growth of the regasification indicators,” says Arūnas Molis, head of Klaipėda LNG Service of KN (AB „Klaipėdos nafta“), the operator of oil products and liquefied natural gas terminals.
In June, the LNG terminal reached its record scope of activities: about 2.4 TWh of natural gas were regasified and submitted to the natural gas transmission system, which is approximately the same as the total amount of gas during the first summer month consumed in all the three Baltic States. In comparison, in June this year the regasification amount was almost 200% higher than in June last year, when a total of 0.8 TWh of gas were regasified.
In June, the LNG terminal regasified 1.5 times more gas than the amount consumed in Lithuania, therefore, in June, the terminal supplied gas to Lithuania, as well as part of the gas was directed by consumers to Inčukalns storage facility and to consumers in Latvia and Estonia, where a total of 0.97 TWh of gas were supplied in June, i.e. about 40% of the whole amount of the gas regasified in the terminal in June.
In June up to 96% of the natural gas that reached Lithuanian consumers were supplied from Klaipėda LNG terminal. The major share of the above amount, i.e. almost 91%, were brought from the gas liquefaction factory in Norway.
The regasification services of Klaipėda LNG terminal are currently provided to UAB “Lietuvos energijos tiekimas” and AB “Achema”, and an agreement with a third user of Klaipėda LNG terminal, i.e. UAB “Imlitex”, was signed in May.
In July, the terminal is planning to accept 4 gas carriers: 2 big gas carriers and 2 small gas carries. Repair works are planning to perform of the gas transmission point from Belarus to Lithuania, which are scheduled for the three weeks of July. Therefore, during these three weeks, the gas to Lithuanian consumers will be submitted only from Klaipėda LNG terminal.
In July, the world’s largest LNG feeder and bunker vessel Kairos will arrive to Klaipėda. As of 30 September, 10% of the shares of the vessel held by KN under the contract of affreightment will be transferred to a German company “Nauticor” under the agreement concluded at the beginning of April.
The vessel Kairos, which will arrive in July to Klaipėda for the fifth time, will perform a reload operation from the FSRU based in the Klaipėda LNG Terminal to the onshore LNG reloading station located at the gateway of the Port of Klaipėda. The possibility for bunkering LNG-powered vessels from the reloading station, loading small-sized cargoes to vessels and semitrailers assures an extensive LNG supply chain across the whole region thus creating added value for Lithuania.
