Norway’s Knutsen and Poland’s Orlen named two newbuild liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers in South Korea.
The christening ceremony for the 174,000-cbm Jozef Piłsudski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski took place at HD Hyundai Samho’s yard in Mokpo on March 21, according to a statement by Orlen.
These are the fifth and sixth LNG carriers Orlen chartered from Knutsen for a period of 10 years.
The vessels are chartered for a period of 10 years, with an option to extend.
In April 2022, PGNiG, now part of Orlen, signed charter deals for these vessels with Knutsen and also for two more vessels with Greece’s Maran Gas.
By next year, Orlen’s chartered LNG fleet will grow to as many as eight vessels, the firm said.
Poland’s LNG imports
The share of seaborne liquefied natural gas in Poland’s total gas imports has been steadily increasing.
In 2024, LNG accounted for nearly half of all gas brought into the country, with the full volume of 70.22 TWh imported by Orlen.
The new LNG carriers will provide the company with greater flexibility in securing deliveries in the coming years, it said.
Orlen said most LNG cargoes are received at the Gaz-System-operated Swinoujscie terminal in Poland.
To date, 347 deliveries have been completed, totalling 27 million tonnes of LNG.
The largest number of shipments originated from Qatar (154) and the United States (167).
Other sources included Norway (16), Nigeria (3), Trinidad and Tobago (4), Egypt (2), and Equatorial Guinea (1).
In the first quarter of this year, Orlen plans to receive 20 deliveries at the terminal – 9 more than during the same period last year.
Further LNG capacity
In addition, Orlen also utilises capacity reserved at the KN Energies-operated FSRU-based terminal in Klaipeda, Lithuania, where it has so far received 11 cargoes totalling nearly 740,000 tonnes of LNG.
After regasification, the gas is transported to Poland via the Poland–Lithuania interconnector. A portion of the fuel is also supplied to Baltic markets.
Orlen is further expanding its domestic LNG import capabilities and has reserved the full regasification capacity – 6.1 bcm – of Gaz-System’s FSRU-based LNG terminal currently under construction in the Bay of Gdansk.
This infrastructure expansion will enable the group to increase the number of LNG cargoes received annually by as many as 58 shipments, it said.