Eesti Gas, a unit of Estonian investment firm Infortar, has received the first liquefied natural gas cargo via Finland’s FSRU-based LNG terminal in the port of Inkoo.
The Tallinn-based firm, which is branded internationally as Elenger, purchased the cargo from energy trader Vitol.
According to a statement by Eesti Gaas, the 2020-built LNG tanker, Vivit Americas LNG, owned by TMS Cardiff Gas and chartered by Vitol, delivered the shipment to Inkoo on Sunday.
Prior to arriving at Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm FSRU Exemplar, which serves Gasgrid’s import facility in Inkoo under a charter deal, the 174,000-cbm vessel loaded the cargo at Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass facility in the US.
This cargo is also the first commercial LNG shipment for the new FSRU-based facility in Finland.
The unit started supplying regasified LNG to the grid on December 29 as part of the commissioning phase.
After that, it also received its first LNG tanker, the 174,130-cbm LNG carrier, Isabella, which delivered a cargo from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal in the US.
Gasgrid said in January that that the FSRU-based facility was ready to start commercial operations.
Six more Inkoo shipments
Earlier this year, Eesti Gas said it signed deals to bring in total ten LNG cargoes by fall this year to two European FSRU-based terminals, including seven shipments via Finland’s LNG facility in the port of Inkoo, and three via the Klaipeda terminal.
Three deliveries have already arrived in Lithuania’s Klaipeda port in January and March from the US and Norway, while six more deliveries will arrive in Inkoo in the spring and summer.
Eesti Gas did not provide more details on the upcoming shipments.
The firm is the first and currently the only customer of the Inkoo terminal.
In order to boost the terminal’s utilization rate, Gasgrid plans to start offering reloading services at the country’s first FSRU-based facility in the port of Inkoo.