On 27 October, Klaipėdos Nafta (KN) announced the opening of its small-scale onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) reloading station. The LNG reloading station is intended to supply LNG for customers in the Baltic Sea region as well as promote the use of clean fuel for maritime operations.
The construction of the LNG reloading station commenced in February 2016, after signing a contract with the consortium comprising German-Lithuanian PPS Pipeline Systems GmbH and Czech Chart Ferox A.S.
The trial operations and commissioning works will continue until the end of the year, according to the company.
The LNG reloading station will include five 1000 m3 tanks for the storage of LNG. The technical design of the station can possibly enhance the station’s capacity up to 10 thousand cubic meters. The station will be able to accommodate two LNG trucks and one small-scale LNG gas carrier, at the same time.
According to Mindaugas Jusius, CEO of KN, the LNG reloading station establishes a comprehensive LNG supply chain and enables the seaport of Klaipėda to fly the flag of a port promoting environmentally friendly technologies.
He also added that the LNG terminal can serve Lithuania by contributing to more efficient realization of the LNG terminal’s potential through the delivery of LNG to the reloading station.
“The LNG reloading station is one of the major investment projects included in the company’s strategy for the period until 2020, with the need for and usefulness of it already seen at the time of the station’s commissioning: the first commissioning cargo has been delivered by the global oil and gas giant Shell, and the first LNG trucks already shipped to Poland. We believe that Lithuania will eventually develop the network of LNG regasification stations: its beginning can already be seen in Druskininkai, with the progress and favorable prospects felt in the neighboring countries. We can safely assume that such result achieved over the three-year period is a consequence of the LNG terminal built in December 2014,” underlined Mindaugas Jusius, CEO of KN.
