Poland’s LNG player PGNiG said its chartered LNG carrier has delivered the first shipment from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana to the Swinoujscie regasification facility.
The shipment onboard the 2014-built 161,941-cbm Maran Gas Apolonia, owned by Greece’s Maran Gas, is also the first ever delivery by a PGNiG-chartered carrier, the Polish firm said in a statement on Saturday.
PGNiG recently confirmed it has chartered three already built LNG carriers and four additional newbuild carriers to ship its contracted volumes from the US.
As of next year, PGNiG will start receiving 1.5 million tons of LNG per year or 2 bcm of natural gas from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass terminal under a long-term contract.
PGNiG also has a long-term agreement with Venture Global to receive 4 million tons per year or about 5.3 bcm of natural gas from the Plaquemines liquefaction terminal in Louisiana.
However, the tanker Maran Gas Apolonia brought over 65 thousand tons of LNG or about 90 million cubic meters of natural gas after regasification from the Calcasieu Pass facility as part of a spot contract.
Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19 and shipped the first commissioning cargo on March 1.
The US Energy Information Administration expects Venture Global’s 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant to reach full production by the third quarter of this year.
“Opening a new chapter”
“This is the first time the LNG cargo has been delivered by a vessel chartered by the PGNiG Group opening a new chapter in the group’s operations on the global LNG market,” Iwona Waksmundzka-Olejniczak, president of PGNiG’s management board said in the statement.
“Until now, we have only purchased LNG cargoes with transport provided. Now we also are able to purchase gas directly from liquefaction terminals under free-on-board contracts. This definitely broadens our possibilities of securing liquefied natural gas volumes,” she said.
Both PGNiG’s long-term contracts with Venture Global are based on FOB formula.
In order to receive gas purchased under these contracts, PGNiG has started to develop its own fleet of LNG tankers.
The group has chartered in total eight newbuild 174,000-cbm carriers, six from Knutsen and two from Maran Gas.
Moreover, the first two tankers will enter into service next year, the next two in 2024 and the remaining four in 2025.
LNG imports rising
Due to the recent intensification of LNG imports by PGNiG, the group has decided to charter three vessels already this year, two of them in the first half of 2022, including Maran Gas Apolonia, it said.
To remind, PGNiG recently said that Russia’s Gazprom had cut supplies to Poland via the Yamal pipeline but the firm would continue to increase LNG imports via the Swinoujscie facility operated by Gaz-System.
Maran Gas Apollonia delivered the 17th shipment to the Swinoujscie facility in 2022 and the 165th since the beginning of the terminal’s operation in 2015, the firm said.
The terminal currently has a regasification capacity of 6.2 bcm per year. Thanks to further investments, the capacity will increase to 8.3 bcm of gas per year in 2024 while PGNiG has booked all of these volumes, it said.
Besides this facility, PGNiG also showed interest in Gaz-System’s planned FSRU-based LNG terminal in Gdansk Bay.