Litgas pushes back Norwegian LNG cargo delivery to mid-December

Lithuania’s Litgas said it has agreed with Norway’s Statoil to postpone the delivery of one liquefied natural gas cargo until mid-December.

LNG cargo, which was originally scheduled for delivery at the Klaipeda LNG terminal from Norway’s Hammerfest plant on November 29, will be brought onboard the Dynagas-owned 155,000 cbm Arctic Aurora.

The delivery was delayed to “avoid increasing regasification in Klaipėda’s LNG terminal (which would have been necessary because of the need to free up LNG terminal tanks for the new cargo) at the time of decreased demand in the energy sector (due to mild weather),” Paulius Jakutavičius, Litgas communication project manager told LNG World News in an e-mailed statement.

Lithuania started importing LNG in December 2014 in order to reduce the country’s dependence on Russian gas supplies. The chilled gas is imported via Höegh LNG’s FSRU Independence located in the port of Klaipeda.

Litgas, part of the Lithuanian state-controlled Lietuvos Energija, signed a five-year deal with Statoil in August last year to purchase about 540 million cubic metres of gas per year via the Klaipeda LNG terminal, operated by Klaipedos Nafta.

Under the deal with Statoil, Lithuania received five LNG cargoes from the Hammerfest plant on the island of Melkøya since December 2014, according to LNG delivery data by Litgas.

However, falling demand in Lithuania has reportedly urged the country to try and renegotiate its LNG deal with Statoil to reduce the total annual volumes it receives from the Norwegian oil and gas giant.

Reuters recently cited Lietuvos Energija’s CEO Dalius Misiunas as saying that the imported LNG is more expensive than gas received from Russia’s Gazprom via a pipeline.

Lithuania has also been looking to re-export LNG on international markets after an approval had been granted by the country’s parliament.

LNG World News Staff