PGNiG secures four new LNG carriers
PGNiG's supply and trading unit (PST) said April 7 it had taken on four new LNG carriers with combined capacity of 696,000 m3 under a 10-year charter contract with associates of Norwegian Knutsen Group and Maran Gas Maritime Gas.
The fleet will hold the regasified LNG equivalent of 100mn m3, with the first carriers due to enter PST's service in early 2023. The contracts give PST a ten-year exclusive lease on all four vessels with the option to extend further.
Paweł Majewski, president of PGNiG's management board, said PGNiG's regasified LNG volumes from US exporters had reached 9bn m3/yr. Of this, as much as 7bn m3/yr is booked under front-of-board contracts, under which PGNiG must arrange for the LNG's collection, transport and unloading.
"Under the charter contracts, we will be able to efficiently supply LNG to the Polish market, but also send the LNG carriers to any LNG terminal in the world," Majewski said. "For us, the enlarged fleet and flexible transport capacities are the key to LNG-based energy security."
PGNiG has already chartered 80 to 90mn3 of regasified LNG carrier capacity to be delivered in 2022. Two of the vessels will be ready by the end of June 2022. "This means that PGNiG will be able to purchase LNG under FOB contracts already [entered into] in 2022," PGNiG said.