Norway's Equinor books capacity at Lithuanian LNG terminal (updated)

KN Energies AB

07/06/2021 09:04

(Adds context)
    By Andrius Sytas
    VILNIUS, June 7 (Reuters) - Norwegian  oil and gas company
Equinor  EQNR.OL  booked capacity for the first time to import
liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Baltic States via Lithuania's
Klaipeda LNG terminal.
    Three traders including Equinor booked import capacity
totalling 8.9 terrawatt hours (TWh) of LNG in initial bidding
for the 12 months beginning Oct. 1, operator Klaipedos Nafta
 KNF1L.VL  said.
    Equinor has already been shipping its gas to other traders
operating at the terminal, such as under 2014's 10-year contract
with Lithuania's Ignitis.
    A fire in September 2020 shut down production at Equinor's
Hammerfest LNG plant in Norway and it estimates the repairs will
finish by March 31 next year.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2MJ1L3   
    The Klaipeda LNG terminal imported 20.44 TWh of gas in 2019
and 21.76 TWh in 2020, or about half of its annual import
capacity of 39 TWh, its operator said.
    The terminal can feed the gas grids of Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia and Finland, and the region is also supplied by pipeline
from Russia.
    A link between Lithuania and Poland is due to open at the
end of 2021, designed to transport up to 21 TWh of gas per year
to Poland or 27 TWh to Lithuania.
    Poland consumes about 200 TWh and the other four countries
60 TWh per annually, according to Ignitis estimates.
    Russia's Gazprom  GAZP.MM  lost a third of its share of the
Finnish gas market last year, after a new pipeline made it
possible to import LNG from Baltic States via Klaipeda.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2J232A

 (Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; editing by Louise
Heavens and Jason Neely)
 ((Andrius.Sytas@thomsonreuters.com; +370 682 74006;))