PGNiG Supply & Trading (PST), part of Poland’s PGNiG Group, has signed charters for four more LNG carriers. Two of them will be delivered by companies of the Norwegian Knutsen Group and the other two by affiliates of Maran Gas Maritime, the LNG arm of Angelicoussis Group.
Similarly to the LNG carriers previously ordered by PGNiG, each of the new vessels will have tanks with a capacity of approximately 174,000 cubic metres, which means they will be able to carry cargoes equivalent to approximately 100 million cubic metres of regasified LNG. PST will use them for a period of ten years on an exclusive basis, with an extension option. The first two LNG carriers will start to operate already next year.
“The volume of regasified LNG contracted by PGNiG from the United States is currently about 9 billion cubic metres per year, including as much as 7 billion cubic metres under FOB contracts, where PGNiG is responsible for collecting, transporting and unloading LNG cargoes at the destination port,” said Paweł Majewski, President of the PGNiG Management Board. “Under the charter contracts, we will be able to efficiently supply liquefied natural gas to the Polish market, but also send the LNG carriers to any LNG terminal in the world. For us, the enlarged fleet and flexible transport capacities are the keys to LNG-based energy security.”
PGNiG has also chartered three already built LNG carriers, each with a capacity of approximately 160,000 cubic metres, equivalent to about 80–90 million cubic metres of regasified LNG. Two of these vessels will be delivered to the company by the end of the first half of 2022, while the third one is to be made available in the second half of the year. This means that PGNiG will be able to purchase LNG under FOB contracts already in 2022.
