Poland’s dominant gas firm and LNG importer PGNiG will charter two newbuild vessels from Norway’s Knutsen for its contracted supplies from the US.
The two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers will enter service in 2023, PGNiG said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The Polish firm said its London LNG trading office selected Knutsen as part of a tender that involved several players.
According to the contract, the chartering period for both vessels is 10 years with the possibility of extension.
As the shipowner, Knutsen will be responsible, among others, for staffing and maintaining the vessels throughout the contract term.
LNG Prime understands that these ships are linked to the recent announcement by South Korea’s KSOE.
The Korean shipbuilder said it won an order from a European shipowner for two carriers of the same size.
KSOE’s unit Hyundai Heavy will build the ships worth about $187.5 million, each.
US LNG to Poland
PGNiG is in charge of all the supplies coming to the only Polish import terminal in Swinoujscie and has several deals lined up with US producers.
The firm says the delivery of these vessels in 2023 will coincide with the launch of Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana.
The Polish firm has supply deals with Venture Global LNG for about 3.5 mtpa or 4.73 bcm.
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass will supply 1 mtpa while Plaquemines LNG will deliver 2.5 mtpa to the Polish company.
Additionally, PGNiG has signed supply deals with US LNG producer Cheniere.
This puts the volume of contracts for US LNG in the PGNiG portfolio to about 9.3 bcm annually after regasification.
About 7 bcm of these supplies will come from FOB contracts. For this reason, the company needs transportation capacity, but also gains flexibility in managing LNG volumes.
The cargo may be sent to Poland or – if sold on the market – to another LNG import terminal in the world, the firm said.