Lithuania’s Klaipėdos Nafta, the operator of the country’s first liquefied natural gas terminal, held talks with several US LNG suppliers as it aims to boost the use of the LNG terminal in Klaipėda.
This week, Klaipėdos Nafta CEO Mindaugas Jusius visited the US and met the representatives of Freeport LNG, Cheniere and NextDecade and Commonwealth LNG, according to a Klaipėdos Nafta statement.
Mindaugas also held meetings with LNG traders Total and BP, the statement said.
“We have a great deal of unused potential to develop our cooperation with the USA and its energy companies. Our experience and competence are evaluated at the international level. We believe that the partnership and established contacts with US companies in the LNG sector will enhance our positions while developing the LNG import projects of terminals,” Jusius said.
The head of Klaipėdos Nafta also emphasized that the US is planning to boost the supply of LNG to Europe and also to offer new opportunities for the LNG terminal in Lithuania.
“Our aim is to increase the efficiency of the use of the LNG terminal in Klaipėda. The establishment of cooperation and the use of our infrastructure for the LNG import from the USA could help us enhance the added value for Lithuania and the whole Baltic Sea Region. This would undoubtedly contribute to the reduction of the terminal costs for residents and business in Lithuania,” the CEO said.
Lithuania, the largest of the three Baltic nations started importing LNG via the FSRU Independence located in the port of Klaipėda in December 2014.
However, over the January-November this year, the facility has regasified and reloaded 8.65 TWh of natural gas, 29 percent below the 12.19 TWh reported in the first 11 months of 2017.
Mindaugas Jusius also noted that the possibility to import LNG will become more significant after the projects of gas interconnections are finalized.
It is expected that the project of gas interconnection between Estonia and Finland will be completed in 2020, and the gas pipeline between Poland and Lithuania will be finalized in 2021, the statement said.
To remind, in April, Klaipėdos Nafta and Freeport LNG signed a mutual memorandum on further cooperation in design and development of the land-based infrastructure for floating LNG terminals.
Polish Oil and Gas Company will receive another spot cargo of U.S. liquefied natural gas on Thursday.
“We are consistently building a portfolio of LNG contracts that is diversified not only in terms of supply directions, but also contract terms. Therefore, beside signing long-term and medium-term contracts, we are still interested in favourable offers on the spot market,” said Piotr Woźniak, President of the Management Board of PGNiG.
PGNiG, that is responsible for all of the LNG deliveries to the Swinoujscje facility, has received 45 LNG cargoes at the terminal so far, sourced in Qatar, Norway and the US.
Irrespective of the spot transaction, the company receives liquefied gas from Centrica under a five-year contract of November 2017, providing for a total of nine LNG deliveries.
LNG represents a growing share of PGNiG’s total imports. In the first nine months of 2018, the company imported 1.96 bcm of LNG (after regasification), accounting for 18 percent of all gas volumes it sourced abroad. A year earlier, the respective figures were 1.33 bcm and 13 percent.
In 2018, PGNiG signed three long-term LNG supply contracts with US-based companies Venture Global and Cheniere, under which they are to deliver a total volume of just under 70 million tonnes (95 bcm after regasification).
Deliveries from Cheniere are due to start in 2019, while LNG from Venture Global will be available from 2022 and 2023, once the company’s two liquefaction terminals in the Gulf of Mexico come on-stream.
