LNG

June 21 (LNGJ) - Klaipeda Nafta (KN), the Lithuanian energy company and operator of the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) “Independence” berthed at the Baltic port of Klaipeda, said the vessel would be entering drydock for inspection and repairs before Lithuania takes over ownership at the start of 2024 from Höegh LNG. “Since the size of the vessel ‘Independence’ requires a large dock, which is not available in Klaipeda and neighbouring ports, it will be sent to one of the southwestern European ports,” said the company.

   “We estimate that since the beginning of LNG operations (in 2014), the terminal has regasified and supplied 12 billion cubic metres of natural gas to the market,” said Mindaugas Navikas, KN’s Director of Commerce. “In the last year alone, the LNG terminal has been operating at almost maximum regasification capacity. Therefore, the reliable operation of such a strategic infrastructure and, accordingly, the highest level of maintenance is our priority,” Navikas stated.

The Baltic state of Lithuania has allocated the long-term capacity on a regional basis for the floating liquefied natural gas import facility at the port of Klaipėda.

Lithuanian fuel company Klaipedos Nafta has invited market participants to book regasification and cargo capacities for the first three months of the coming winter season from October to the end of December 2022.

The Baltic nation’s operator of oil and gas and fuel storage at the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda said the floating LNG terminal would offer a total of 9.66 terawatt hours during the allocation procedure.

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have only one import terminal between them at the Lithuanian port in the form of the 170,000 cubic metres capacity floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) “Independence”, delivered in 2014 by Norway’s Höegh LNG Holdings.

Höegh LNG has since expressed its intention to sell the FSRU “Independence” to a suitable buyer as Höegh itself was subjected to a corporate overhaul after an internal takeover.

“In order to ensure that the services of the terminal can be used by as many customers as possible, the capacity of the LNG terminal will be allocated,” said Klaipedos Nafta.

The company said that new regulations provide that a single terminal user may not book more than half of the terminal's allocated capacity.

Preferences

“In the event that the supply of terminal capacity exceeds the demand, the capacity shall be allocated on a ‘pro rata’ basis, with preference given to the companies, which have used the services of the LNG terminal in the last three years and are therefore familiar with the operating principles,” explained Klaipedos Nafta.

Later in 2022, Klaipedos Nafta also stated that it planned to offer the market the possibility to book long-term capacity at the LNG terminal from January 2023 for a period of five or 10 years.

The relevant amendments to the regulations for the use of the terminal have been submitted for market consultation.

“One of the technical changes we will follow next year will align the so-called gas year with the calendar year,” explained Jurgita Šilinskaitė-Venslovienė, Head of LNG at Klaipedos Nafta.

“That is why we are currently initiating capacity allocation for a relatively short period of three months,” she added.

“Already in June, we will invite customers to assess the long-term capacity needs of the LNG terminal, for which we are currently making the final preparations,” she concluded.

The Klaipedos Nafta said applications for terminal capacity scan be submitted to the company until the 17th of May at 4:30 PM Lithuanian time.

Joint annual and monthly schedules of LNG cargoes delivered to the terminal will continue to be published and updated on the Klaipedos Nafta website.

“For the gas year, lasting from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2022, customers have booked a total of 23.9 TWh of Klaipeda terminal capacity,” it added. 

The Lithuanian LNG import terminal at the Baltic port of Klaipeda handled 49 LNG cargoes in the gas year from October 2020 until the start of June 2021 and hopes to better this performance through the rest of the year.

Equinor, the operator of the LNG export plant on Melkoya Island in Northern Norway, said that the facility would not be re-starting until early 2021 after a fire described as a very serious incident that had disturbed local residents in the nearby town of Hammerfest.

Equinor, the operator of the Hammerfest LNG export plant on Melkoya Island in Northern Norway, said the facility would remain shut until September 23 after a gas leak.

Emergency services were sent to the plant on September 13 after an alarm was sounded during preparations to restart the plant after maintenance.

Feed-gas for the single-Train Hammerfest liquefaction facility comes from the Snohvit gas field in the Barents Sea.

Hammerfest exported 4.72 million tonnes of LNG in 2019 compared with 5.17MT in the previous year.

Most of the volumes were delivered to European destinations like France, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania.

The Norwegian facility also exported small quantities last year to Asian nations such as China and India.

Hammerfest had been scheduled to restart on September 13 after a short shutdown due to an outage.

Equinor had given no previous reason for the original shutdown.

Europe’s only large-scale LNG plant has a capacity to process 18 million cubic metres of gas per day.

Most feed-gas for Hammerfest comes from a total of 20 wells in the Snohvit and Albatross fields.

This output is transported to land through a 143-kilometre pipeline

A previous scheduled maintenance saw Hammerfest reopen on June 18 after several weeks of shutdown.

Equinor has 37 percent of the Snohvit field and the LNG plant and the other partners include French major Total and Germany’s Wintershall Dea.