Poland’s dominant gas firm and LNG importer PGNiG said work has started on the first out of four LNG carriers it has chartered from Norway’s Knutsen.
To mark the occasion, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries held a steel-cutting ceremony on August 30 for hull No 3243, according to PGNiG.
This vessel is the first of two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers which will enter service in 2023.
PGNiG and Knutsen signed a charter deal for these two carriers in November last year.
Subsequently, the duo entered into a new chartering contract in July this year for two additional vessels. These LNG ships will start serving PGNiG in the first half of 2024.
Both contracts stipulate that the shipowner will be responsible for the delivery, manning and maintenance of the LNG vessels. PGNiG Supply & Trading will control their commercial operations.
PGNiG said it plans to use these four LNG carriers primarily to transport contracted volumes from US liquefaction facilities.
The firm has recently signed a new supply deal with US liquefaction plant developer Venture Global LNG.
As a result, PGNiG’s contracted volume from Venture Global LNG will increase to 5.5 million mt or 7.4 bcm of gas per year.
