State-owned terminal operator LNG Croatia has announced that it has received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Oman LNG, whose market footprint now covers around 25 countries globally.
LNG Croatia, which operates a 140,000 cubic meter (cbm) Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FRSU) at Krk in the North Adriatic Sea, said the LNG cargo was delivered by the 170,000 cbm capacity BW ENN Snow Lotus LNG carrier last week.
It is expected to be one of the last shipments of Omani LNG into Europe before a new European Union (EU) Energy Platform – a newly established pan-Europe portal for the import of natural gas, LNG and green hydrogen in the future – comes online next month.
Work on the EU Energy Platform was initiated last year in response to a European Council mandate requiring EU member states to diversify gas imports away from Russia following the Ukraine conflict.
The platform allows the EU to coordinate negotiations with global energy suppliers, thereby securing competitive prices for its energy imports without the need for member states to outbid each other. Besides supporting the EU’s security of supply and access to affordable energy, the platform also enables international outreach, demand aggregation, and efficient use of EU gas infrastructures. Last week, the EU announced its first tender for proposals for gas supplies via this new platform.
Significantly, the maiden shipment to LNG Croatia was based on a spot sale – a type of contract that Oman LNG has increasingly capitalized on to secure buyers for surplus volumes not committed under long-term or short-term supply arrangements. According to Oman LNG, between 10 – 15 per cent of all cargoes from the company are marketed and delivered through the spot market.
The year 2022 was a bumper year for Oman LNG with the company delivering a record 176 cargoes of LNG, up from 163 shipments sold a year earlier. Eleven per cent of the shipments delivered last year were spot cargoes.
Total LNG production from the three-train plant at Qalhat climbed to 11.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2022, up from 10.6 mtpa in 2021. The uptick in output was the result of a major multi-year debottlenecking programme carried out at the Qalhat complex. The surplus production yielded 10 new LNG cargoes last year – a figure that is anticipated to rise to 12 cargoes in 2023, according to Oman LNG.
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