The gas carrier “Grażyna Gęsicka” has been launched as the second of eight vessels commissioned by Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG) to transport LNG. The unit will enter service in 2023.

In 2020, PGNiG Group entered into a charter agreement with Norwegian shipping company Knutsen OAS Shipping for two LNG vessels. Last year, the group extended this agreement with two more vessels. They will primarily be used to service long-term contracts for the purchase of LNG from the USA. The new gas carrier will have a capacity of 174,000 m3 of gas. The entire order of eight ships will take another three years to complete.

The vessels will be used primarily to service long-term contracts for the purchase of LNG from the USA. The contracts signed to date with US LNG producers provide for the supply of approximately 9 bcm of LNG after regasification.

The PGNiG Group also announced that it has been allocated regasification capacity at the Lithuanian LNG terminal. This will provide the ability to import more than 0.5 bcm of natural gas per year through this terminal in Klaipeda. The reservation period is 10 years.

“With the long-term reservation of regasification capacity at the Klaipeda terminal, PGNiG will be able to use its competence in LNG trading to increase the availability of gas for customers in both countries. I am convinced that the cooperation between Klaipedos Nafta and PGNiG will not only contribute to the realisation of business plans of both companies, but will also enable further integration of gas markets in this part of Europe”, said PGNiG CEO Iwona Waksmundzka-Olejniczak.

PGNiG has been using the FSRU terminal in Klaipeda since May 2022 and has already taken delivery of six supplies there. As the company pointed out, after regasification, part of the volume was sold to Baltic customers, while the rest was delivered to the Polish market through the Poland-Lithuania gas pipeline launched in May 2022.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński