LNG terminal electrification moving forward as contractor gets shore connection job

Lithuanian liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal operator KN Energies (KN), former Klaipedos Nafta, has picked a contractor for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) works related to its LNG terminal electrification project on Lithuania’s Kiaulės Nugara Island.

An international public procurement process enabled KN Energies to select AB Kauno tiltai, a specialist in roads, bridges, and infrastructure projects, as the EPC winner of the power line connection for the Klaipėda LNG terminal. The deal for the electrification project is valued at €19.3 million, excluding VAT. 

As a result, the contractor is committed to designing and installing the electrical cable necessary for the LNG floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) Independence, which will run through the territory of Klaipėda city and beneath the Curonian Lagoon, a freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit.

The required infrastructure will be designed and built at the LNG terminal jetty and on the FSRU itself to enable shore connection. The Lithuanian LNG terminal operator describes this as a technological solution where a ship moored at the jetty is supplied with electricity from the onshore grid, allowing auxiliary internal combustion engines to be shut down.  

At the beginning of April 2025, a subsidy agreement was signed with the Environmental Project Management Agency, under which €6 million in funding from the European Union’s Modernisation Fund Program was allocated for the implementation of the project.

The operator claims that the remaining amount required for the implementation of the project is planned to be borrowed from commercial banks. KN has also secured the approval of the National Energy Regulatory Council regarding the Klaipėda LNG terminal electrification project’s inclusion into the regulated asset base. 

This project is expected to be completed within three years. The Klaipėda LNG terminal, which has been active since 2014, with commercial activities starting a year later, consists of a permanently moored FSRU Independence, a 450-meter-long berth, a connecting nearly 18-kilometer-long gas pipeline, and a gas metering station.

The terminal, which secured full occupancy until 2033, witnessed the transfer of 105,000 cubic meters of LNG a few months ago from the FSRU to the Amur River LNG vessel. As KN Energies has prolonged a contract with Poland’s ORLEN, the latter can use the small-scale reloading station in the Baltic country for five more years.