Saint Barbara and Ignacy Lukasiewicz are the brand new additions quickly to affix the ORLEN Group’s fleet of LNG vessels. The ship naming ceremony passed off on the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shipyard in Mokpo, South Korea. Slated to start sea service by the top of this yr, the brand new vessels are set to bolster the ORLEN Group’s capability for pure gasoline procurement and thus improve Poland’s vitality safety.
“The most recent additions to the ORLEN Group’s fleet of gasoline carriers are necessary for the advancing of Poland’s vitality independence and increasing our footprint within the world LNG market. Our dedication to diversifying gasoline imports, primarily by way of LNG provides, has been a convincing success. This strategic strategy has facilitated our shift away from Russian gasoline, permitting us to climate the challenges of the European vitality disaster. All through this era, we’ve got honed capabilities that may underpin our continued efforts to diversify gasoline procurement sources, assembly the wants of our prospects in Poland and the broader area. Pure gasoline, as a strategic useful resource, performs a necessary function in serving households and supporting the chemical business, but it surely additionally stays a linchpin for an environment friendly and safe vitality transition. Our personal fleet of LNG vessels has expanded the ORLEN Group’s logistical capability, strengthening the reliability of provides whereas lowering transport prices,” stated Daniel Obajtek, CEO and President of the Administration Board of ORLEN.
The brand new gasoline carriers have been christened with significant names: Saint Barbara pays homage to the patron saint of miners, oil and gasoline staff, whereas Ignacy Lukasiewicz honours the pioneering determine on the planet oil business, an illustrious inventor, industrialist, and advocate for Poland’s independence. Crafted by South Korea’s Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, the vessels will function underneath a long-term constitution settlement with shipowner Knutsen OAS Transport.
As soon as built-in into the fleet, the gasoline carriers will serve the twin goal of accommodating each long-term contracts and spot contracts, primarily based on the Free-On-Board (FOB) supply phrases, whereby the ORLEN Group, as the customer, will probably be liable for accumulating and transporting the cargoes.
The ORLEN Group’s built-to-order fleet will play a pivotal function within the environment friendly dealing with of LNG shipments destined for Poland. The outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, coupled with the halt in gasoline provides to Europe from the japanese path, has led to a considerable surge in demand for LNG inside the area. Within the first half of 2022, imports of liquefied pure gasoline into the EU reached 54.6 billion m3, a big enhance from 34.3 billion m3 in the identical interval of 2021. This upward development has continued into 2023, witnessing LNG deliveries in a complete quantity of 61.3 billion m3 within the first half of this yr – a 79% enhance in contrast with the identical interval of 2021. The mounting demand for LNG has resulted in decreased availability of gasoline carriers out there, pushing up freight prices. In opposition to this backdrop, entities just like the ORLEN Group, geared up with their very own devoted transport services, have been capable of seize a aggressive edge.
Finally, the whole rely of vessels within the ORLEN Group’s fleet will probably be delivered to eight. Every vessel can have a capability of roughly 70 000 t of LNG, which equates to roughly 100 million m3 of pure gasoline in gaseous state. By way of measurement, the gasoline carriers have been designed to navigate nearly any LNG terminal throughout the globe. Moreover, all of the vessels have been geared up with options bettering their vitality effectivity and mitigating the environmental influence. These embody built-in administration of electrical energy consumption and a reliquefaction system to recuperate LNG that naturally evaporates throughout transport.
By way of ongoing operations, two ships of the ORLEN Group’s fleet have already been deployed this yr: Lech Kaczynski and Grazyna Gesicka, which delivered their inaugural LNG shipments to Poland in March and June, respectively. The upcoming cargo – by Grazyna Gesicka – is anticipated to reach in late October or early November this yr.
Along with increasing its devoted fleet, the ORLEN Group can also be enhancing its capability to obtain liquefied gasoline at home terminals. An August settlement with GAZ-SYSTEM marked a big step, securing regasification capability on the forthcoming Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU), set to be positioned within the Gulf of Gdansk. The infrastructure improvement is anticipated to spice up the annual rely of LNG deliveries obtained by the ORLEN Group by as much as 58.
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