Litgas , part of Lithuania’s state-owned energy holding Lietuvos Energija, and Statoil of Norway signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday regarding establishment of a joint venture company in Lithuania to develop small scale LNG bunkering services.
The new joint venture company is planned to be established in Lithuania later this year and would supply LNG as a fuel to ships, small terminals in the Baltic Sea, and transport LNG by trucks to on-shore customers, Litgas revealed in a statement.
General Manager of Litgas Dominykas Tuckus said, “Increased usage of the Klaipeda terminal will help to reduce infrastructure and maintenance costs incurred by the Lithuanian and Baltic gas consumers and position Klaipeda as an important hub in the Baltic LNG market.”
It is predicted that Baltic Sea small scale LNG market can reach from 0.5 to 1 BCM a year by 2020. The joint venture company is expected to start its small scale supply operations in the Q4 of 2017 or sooner.
Securing vessel capacity is an important prerequisite for the joint venture company and dialogue has been initiated with shipping companies with the aim to secure vessel capacity from the time the joint venture company becomes operational and received the final regulatory approvals.
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