Lithuania’s Klaipedos Nafta, the state-owned operator of the country’s first LNG import facility in Klaipeda, has resumed operations at the 170,000-cbm FSRU Independence following the completion of yearly maintenance works.
KN temporary moved the FSRU on September 27 from its jetty at the Kiaules Nugara island in the Klaipeda port to the berth of Klaipedos Smelte.
“The FSRU returned to its normal mooring place at the jetty of the Klaipeda LNG terminal on Friday evening and LNG regasification and gas supply to the Lithuanian gas transmission system resumed on Saturday morning,” KN said in a statement.
During the scheduled maintenance works, KN inspected the LNG terminal jetty infrastructure – the high-pressure loading arms, the gas pipeline, emergency power generation facilities, mooring system, and other equipment.
At the same time, Klaipeda State Seaport Authority completed the LNG terminal’s water area bottom cleaning or dredging works, according to KN.
During the maintenance and cleaning works, Lithuania was supplied with natural gas from neighboring countries.
KN added it expects the next LNG cargo in Klaipeda on October 7-8.
KN currently leases Hoegh’s 170,000-cbm FSRU Independence with a regas capacity of 3.75 bcm, but it will buy the unit at the end of its current charter.
There are plans to boost the capacity up to 6.25 bcm due to very high demand as European and the Baltic countries look to reduce reliance on Russian gas and boost energy security.
Poland’s PGNiG and Latvia’s Latvenergo recently secured regasification capacity for a period of ten years at the FSRU.
KN awarded four LNG terminal users from Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland capacity packages of 6 TWh per year, or over 0.5 billion cubic meters of gas after regasification, for a total of 24 TWh.