Two brand-new vessels for carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG), Saint Barbara and Ignacy Łukasiewicz, have joined the fleet of the Polish state-owned energy company.

The carriers, each capable of transporting 70kt of LNG, will join their sister ships, Lech Kaczyński and Grażyna Gęsicka, by year-end, serving long-term as well as spot contracts. Knutsen Shipping will operate them under a long-term charter.

Once completed, ORLEN's fleet will consist of eight such carriers.

The naming ceremony took place at the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shipyard in the South Korean Mokpo. "The new gas carriers have been christened with meaningful names: Saint Barbara pays homage to the patron saint of miners, oil and gas workers, while Ignacy Łukasiewicz honours the pioneering figure in the world oil industry, an illustrious inventor, industrialist, and advocate for Poland's independence," highlighted ORLEN in a press release.

The share of ORLEN's seaborne LNG imports rose from 24% (3.94b m3) in 2021 to 43% (6.04b m3) last year. With increasing overall imports of LNG onto the European market - 34.3b m3 in H1 2021, 54.6b m3 in H1 2022, and 61.3b m3 over this year's first half, according to the company's data - the carrying capacity has been stretched, pushing freight rates up. As such, ORLEN decided to invest in a fleet of its own.

The company imports its volumes through the LNG terminal in the Port of Świnoujście, which mostly receives the shipments (254 deliveries, 20mt, by 19 October 2023) from Qatar (127 deliveries) and the US (106), plus Norway (13), Nigeria (3), Trinidad and Tobago (3), Egypt (1), and Equatorial Guinea (1).

Since May 2022, ORLEN has also been using the floating LNG terminal in Klaipėda. To date, ten shipments of 655kt were unloaded there, sent back to Poland by pipeline or put on the gas market of the Baltic States.

Photo: ORLEN