Eesti Gas, a part of Estonian investment firm Infortar, has received five LNG cargoes via Lithuania’s FSRU-based Klaipeda LNG import facility in 2022.
The Tallinn-based firm, which is branded internationally as Elenger, offers its customers natural gas in the form of pipeline gas, CNG, LNG, and manages Estonia’s largest gas network.
Besides Estonia, it operates in Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland under the Elenger brand name.
Last year, the company “switched the gas supply of its customers in the Baltic and Finnish regions to a liquefied natural gas-based one,” it said in a statement.
Five large LNG ships delivered gas to Eesti Gaas customers last year, according to Eesti Gas.
LNG carrier Aristidis I delivered a cargo from the US to the 170,000-cbm FSRU Independence in Klaipeda in May, followed by Diamond Gas Crystal with a US cargo in May and Arctic Princess with a cargo from Norway in June.
Eesti Gas purchased these three cargoes from Poland’s dominant gas firm and LNG player, PGNiG, now part of PKN Orlen.
In addition, Eeesti Gas bought two LNG cargoes from Norway’s Equinor, the operator of the Hammerfest LNG export plant, to secure winter supplies.
LNG carrier Isabella delivered one cargo from the US in October while Arctic Aurora delivered one shipment from Norway to Klaipeda in November.
Next shipment in mid-January
“The past year freed gas from pipe-based constraints. Gas now comes to us by sea from the West, mainly from Norway and the United States, compressed hundreds of times in the tanks of giant ships, so that one load covers almost a quarter of Estonia’s usual gas needs,” Margus Kaasik, chairman of the Eesti Gaas board, said in the statement.
He said that the next shipment for Eesti Gaas would arrive in Klaipeda in mid-January.
Estonian energy company Alexela and compatriot Infortar announced in October last year the completion of the construction work on the FSRU-based Paldiski LNG import facility in Estonia, the country’s first such facility.
However, Finland and Estonia agreed to place FSRU Exemplar in the Finnish port of Inkoo.
Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm FSRU Exemplar recently started supplying regasified LNG to the Finnish grid as part of the commissioning phase.
“When the new supply routes get in place and the new LNG infrastructure together with the ports is completed, it will start to bring down the gas price in our region and expand the use of gas again would help increase the competitiveness of Estonian industry and accelerate the development of hydrogen technologies,” Kaasik said.
“In addition, gas could be used for the production of electricity, where it would replace oil shale and support wind and solar energy in covering peak loads,” Kaasik said.
