• 16 Feb 2015

Lithuanian liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Litgas and Norway's Statoil are counsidering setting up an LNG bunkering business in the Baltic region as regulations force vessels to switch to cleaner fuels, the Lithuanian company said. The business, if launched, could involve additional LNG volumes on top of the 0.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year Litgas has agreed to buy from Statoil for five-years. "Litgas together with Statoil are analysing cooperation opportunities and plan to agree on the form of cooperation within the second quarter this year," the Lithuanian importer said in a statement. "We are speaking about additional LNG volumes on top of the already agreed 0.5 bcm per year... Maybe two additional LNG tankers," a spokesman for Litgas said. The Klaipeda LNG terminal, which received the first commercial LNG cargo at the end of December, can store 170,000 cubic metres of super-cooled gas. LNG demand for shipping in the Baltic region is going to increase due to stricter environmental regulations for sulphur content in the fuel, it added. "Both companies believe that this market will be interesting in the future," Litgas said. Additional information were provided by the CEO of Litgas, Dominykas Tuckus, who said: “The Klaipeda LNG terminal is the only LNG terminal of such size in the Baltic Sea capable to reload LNG to smaller LNG bunkering vessels, such as bunkering ferries, containerships and other LNG propelled vessels, as well as to supply gas to industrial customers in smaller quantities,”

Litgas is 67 percent owned by Lithuania's state-owned energy group Lietuvos Energija and 33 percent by Lithuanian oil terminal company Klaipedos Nafta. The demand for LNG in the Baltic region is increasing and both companies believe that this market will be interesting in the future. Having already put in place a value chain with access to self-produced LNG, ship transport capacity and access to the Klaipeda terminal, Statoil and Litgas believe that a cooperation between both companies should bring synergies that will benefit the potential cooperation between the two companies on small scale LNG distribution in the region.

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Susan Thomas)