South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries has hosted a naming ceremony for two Knutsen’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers that will go on charter to Poland’s PKN Orlen.
The naming ceremony for the 174,000-cbm Lech Kaczynski and Grazyna Gesicka took place at the yard in Ulsan on Wednesday, according to a statement by PKN Orlen.
Norway’s Knutsen ordered these vessels at Hyundai Heavy in October 2020 for about $187.5 per ship.
PGNiG, now part of PKN Orlen, chartered these carriers to ship its contracted US LNG supplies to Poland for a period of 10 years.
The statement said that Lech Kaczynski had already completed its sea trials and would enter service in early 2023, followed by its sister vessel, Grazyna Gesicka, in the second half of the next year.
Besides these two newbuilds, PGNiG also took on charter four more newbuild LNG carriers from Knutsen and two from Greece’s Maran Gas for a total of eight and scheduled for delivery by 2025.
In addition, PGNiG also chartered three already built LNG carriers, each with a capacity of approximately 160,000 cbm.