The 174,000-cbm newbuild LNG carrier Lech Kaczynski, owned by Norway’s Knutsen, has recently left South Korea on its maiden voyage to Poland, according to charterer PKN Orlen.
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries hosted a naming ceremony on December 14 at its yard in Ulsan for this vessel and it sister ship Grazyna Gesicka.
PGNiG, now part of PKN Orlen, chartered these carriers to ship its contracted US LNG supplies to Poland for a period of 10 years.
PKN Orlen said via social media on Wednesday that Lech Kaczynski left Ulsan to complete a cool-down operation prior to loading a cargo of LNG.
According to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue, the LNG carrier departed the yard last week and visited the Gwangyang LNG terminal, operated by Posco.
The vessel was on Thursday located in the South China Sea and is expected to arrive in Singapore on January 1.
PKN Orlen previously said that Lech Kaczynski would enter service under the ORLEN colors early next year while Grażyna Gesicka would deliver its first LNG cargo in the second half of next year.
Besides Lech Kaczynski and Grazyna Gesicka, 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.
