Lithuania’s first LNG terminal awaits cargo

The 140,000 cbm LNG tanker Arctic Voyager, which departed from Norway’s Hammerfest terminal on Sunday, is about to deliver Lithuania’s third ever commercial shipment.

The vessel is expected to dock at the FSRU Independence, located in the Port of Klaipeda, on April 30, Indre Miliniene, head of communication at Klaipedos Nafta, the operator of Lithuania’s first terminal, told LNG World News in an e-mailed statement.

The 170,000 cbm FSRU Independence, owned by Höegh LNG, started serving as the country’s first import terminal last year in order to reduce Lithuania’s dependence on Russian gas supplies opening the door to global LNG sources.

Lithuania’s first commercial LNG shipment arrived in Klaipeda onboard the Arctic Aurora in December last year, followed by the arrival of Golar Seal in February.

Both of the cargoes were delivered from the Hammerfest LNG terminal, operated by Statoil, as part of a deal signed last year by the Norwegian giant and LITGAS. Under the mid-term contract, Statoil will each year deliver 6-7 cargoes of the chilled gas to Klaipeda port.

However, since Lithuania signed the LNG imports deal with Statoil, Russia’s Gazprom cut the price of the gas it supplies to Lithuania via a pipeline by 20 percent.

This may lead to Klaipedos Nafta starting to re-export the chilled gas to global markets as the domestic demand drops during the summer months.

Miliniene recently confirmed that there are some discussions on re-exporting the liquefied natural gas and added that “Lithuania needs to prepare a regulatory system for re-exporting and this question has to be sent to Ministry of Energy.”

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LNG World News Staff; Image: Höegh LNG