Poland’s Gaz-System has selected Japan’s MOL as the preferred shipowner to time charter out a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for the planned LNG import terminal in Gdansk.
Gaz-System said in a statement that it will continue negotiations of the terms of the FSRU time charter agreement with MOL.
Moreover, the company needs to secure all necessary corporate approvals from the its management bodies to sign the agreement with MOL.
In November 2023, state-owned Gaz-System revealed that MOL and Oslo-based BW LNG, a unit of Singapore’s BW, have been shortlisted to provide the FSRU.
Also, Gaz-System said at the time it would conclude the charter deal with one of the two firms for a period of 15 years.
The firm said in the new statement that MOL has 140 years of history in the international shipping industry and operates one of the world’s largest merchant fleets consisting of nearly 800 vessels.
MOL’s LNG fleet is the world’s largest with almost 120 vessels including 7 FSRU units, it said.
Poland’s first FSRU
This is Poland’s first FSRU and will add to the onshore Swinoujscie LNG terminal.
Poland’s Orlen previously booked entire 6.1 bcm per year of regasification capacity at Gaz-System’s planned FSRU-based LNG import facility.
Orlen is already in charge for all of the supplies coming to Gaz System’s LNG import terminal in Swinoujscie, Poland’s first such facility, via PGNiG.
The FSRU is assumed to be berthed at a mooring platform about 3km from the shore, in the area of the Port of Gdansk between the mouths of the Vistula River branches: Smiala and Martwa.
Besides the FSRU, the project includes a jetty, offshore and onshore pipelines, and other infrastructure.
Gaz-System said commissioning of the complete project, backed by the EU, is planned in 2027/2028.
However, the firm did not provide any other details regarding the FSRU.
MOL also released a separate statement regarding the Gdansk FSRU but it did not provide any other details.
The latest order for a newbuild FSRU was booked by US LNG firm Excelerate Energy at South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in October 2022.
This deal is worth about $332 million.