Orlen Receives Record Number Of LNG Cargoes In 2022

As many as 58 LNG cargoes were received by Orlen at the President Lech Kaczyński Terminal in 2022, hitting a new record since the terminal started commercial operation.

The volume of LNG deliveries received in Świnoujście totaled 4.4 million tons, 57% more than last year. The increased LNG imports helped to ensure energy security for gas customers in Poland despite the challenging gas market landscape in Europe.

“‘The liquefied natural gas shipments received at the President Lech Kaczyński terminal were Poland’s main source of natural gas supply in 2022, covering as much as one-third of the country’s demand. We successfully harnessed the ORLEN Group’s capabilities and the available regasification infrastructure to safely navigate the national economy through the biggest crisis in the European gas market.”

“In 2023, we will further optimize our gas import portfolio, helped by new LNG carriers chartered by the ORLEN Group, two of which will enter service as soon as this year,” said Daniel Obajtek, President of the Management Board of Orlen.

PGNiG, an Orlen Group company, took delivery of 58 LNG cargoes in Świnoujście in 2022, 23 more than a year earlier, when 35 ships carrying a total of 2.8 million tons of LNG arrived at the President Lech Kaczyński terminal. Most of the shipments last year, 36, came from the United States, with 18 shiploads from Qatar ranking second. The group also imported LNG from Nigeria (two cargoes), Trinidad and Tobago (one cargo), and Egypt (one cargo).

The rapid growth in LNG deliveries was a response to disruptions in the European gas market caused by Gazprom’s actions and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The group ramped up imports primarily from liquefaction terminals in the United States, which increased deliveries to Poland by as many as 20 cargoes compared with 2021.

Stepping up LNG imports was possible as the annual regasification capacity of the Świnoujście terminal was expanded by 1.2 bcm, to 6.2 bcm in 2022. Orlen imported a total of 5.8 bcm of LNG via the Świnoujście terminal in 2022, translating into a regasification capacity utilization rate of around 94%. This is significantly higher than in 2021, when the utilization rate of the terminal’s capacity of 5 bcm was 78%.

Last year, the Orlen received its first LNG cargoes at the LNG terminal in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Eight deliveries with a total volume of half a million tons of LNG, equivalent to 0.7 bcm of regasified natural gas, were received in 2022. Most of the fuel was regasified and shipped to Poland via a new pipeline link between Lithuania and Poland, further strengthening the security of supply for domestic customers. The remaining gas was sold in the Baltic states.

Orlen plans to maintain the high efficiency of its LNG operations in 2023, adjusting the volumes of gas imported by sea to customer demand and the current market situation. As in 2022, the largest source of LNG imports will be the US as the company performs under its two long-term contracts with US companies Cheniere and Venture Global, providing for a combined target volume of almost 3 million tons of LNG per year.

The contract with Cheniere entered into force back in 2019, but only this year will the volume of gas supplied under the contract reach the target level of 1.45 million tons per year, which is equivalent to about 2 bcm of regasified natural gas. Deliveries under the contract with Venture Global will begin in 2023.

Orlen also has a contract with Klaipedos Nafta, the operator of the Klaipėda LNG terminal, under which PGNiG may receive six LNG cargoes at the Lithuanian gas terminal this year.

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