Gazprom Sources Cool-Down Cargo for Kaliningrad
Russian giant Gazprom is importing LNG from Singapore to launch its Kaliningrad regasification terminal, the company told local media RBC December 13, using the Marshal Vasilevsky tanker.
The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea receives gas via the Minsk – Vilnius – Kaunas – Kaliningrad pipeline, but Gazprom has constructed the terminal to strengthen the energy security of this province and avoid its gas passing through Belarus and the European Union.
Another Russian newspaper Kommersant reported late November that Gazprom plans to import 170,000 m3 LNG at $360/'000 m3 from Singapore to Kaliningrad on December 15 to launch the terminal. Russian pipeline gas would be only about $72/'000 m³, according to Kommersant.
Regasification would be carried out by a floating regasification unit, Gazprom says on its website, adding that thanks to the terminal, consumers in the Kaliningrad Region will be able to receive up to 2.7bn m3/yr of regasified LNG. The company plans to commission the Vyborg LNG terminal north of St Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland to liquefy 660,00o metric tons/yr for Kaliningrad.
LNG regasification terminal links with the existing gas pipeline near the Kaliningrad storage facility, thus making it possible to supply gas to consumers in the region and to feed it into the underground storage. Launching the terminal was firstly planned in 2013 to operate in 2017, but after two years delay it is reportedly ready.
Last year Singapore was the third largest LNG reloading port.