Maintenance works of the steam heat exchanger at the Klaipėda LNG terminal

Due to the maintenance works of the steam heat exchanger at the Klaipėda LNG terminal, regasification rate will be set to the nominal capacities until January 15th, 2023. Usually, as Lithuania completely halted imports of the natural gas from Russia since April 2022, Klaipėda LNG terminal has been operating exceeding nominal capacity to ensure the maximum amount of natural gas that can be supplied to the market. Considering the current Lithuanian natural gas demand, operation at the nominal capacity will have no influence on Lithuanian consumer supply with natural gas.
 
Nominal capacity – actual regasification capacity with regards to LNG terminal's technical characteristics, the terminal's operational and maintenance requirements, shipping conditions, LNG handling features and other factors. Nominal capacity corresponds to approximately 70 percent of the terminal's maximum technical capacity.
 
“Amber Grid”, Lithuanian gas transmission system operator, estimates, that the maintenance works at the Klaipėda LNG terminal don’t create obstacles to supply Lithuanian consumers with natural gas from the terminal. The current gas consumption of Lithuania is significantly lower than the available capacity of the terminal. Recently, the demand for natural gas in the country has decreased due to three following reasons – favourable air temperature, decision of the industrial company, main natural gas consumer in the country, to reduce its operations, also natural gas is not used for the generation of the electricity due to the low price of electricity in the market.
 
Until January 15th, Lithuanian natural gas demand will be secured from the three different sources: Klaipėda LNG terminal, Lithuanian-Polish gas interconnector GIPL and from Inčukalns underground natural gas storage facility.
 
“We supply natural gas to our customers from Klaipėda LNG terminal, we have also accumulated natural gas reserves at the Inčukalns underground natural gas storage facility and there is also opportunity to acquire and import natural gas through the Polish-Lithuanian gas interconnector GIPL. Even the lower than planned rate of regasification at the Klaipėda LNG terminal will not create any inconvenience to our customers, as the gas supply has been already ensured through the alternative sources up to now”, says Asta Virbickienė, head of the natural gas wholesale market department at “Ignitis”.
 
KN as LNG terminal operator is cooperating with FSRU owner „Hoegh LNG“, which is responsible for the maintenance and repair at the terminal to ensure that the terminal's maximum regasification capacity is restored as soon as possible. Respectively, the information has been provided to the LNG terminal users and market participants. 
 
Steam heat exchanger is an equipment, which is part of the technological process of heating and cooling technological streams. Its uninterrupted operation is important to secure the maximum regasification rate at the terminal. The maximum regasification capacity of Klaipėda LNG terminal is approx. 428 thousand nm3/hour, current regasification rate is set to 280 thousand nm3/hour.