Eesti Gaas buys more LNG cargoes

Eesti Gas, a unit of Estonian investment firm Infortar, has purchased more liquefied natural gas cargoes for delivery by fall this year and plans to buy additional LNG shipments for the fourth quarter.

Eesti Gas, which is branded internationally as Elenger, said in a statement issued on May 25 that it has “committed to bring 14 LNG cargoes from different suppliers to its customers by the fall and plans to add some more in the fourth quarter.”

In February this year, the firm said it will bring in total ten LNG cargoes by fall this year to two European FSRU-based terminals, including seven shipments via Finland’s LNG facility in the port of Inkoo and four via Lithuania’s FSRU-based Klaipeda LNG import facility.

Eesti Gas received the first LNG cargo via Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm FSRU Exemplar, which serves Gasgrid’s import facility in Inkoo under a charter deal, in April from the US. The firm purchased this cargo from trader Vitol.

During the same month, the second LNG cargo also arrived from the US onboard the 173,400-cbm, Solaris, while the third cargo arrived onboard the 142,700-cbm Arctic Voyager from Equinor’s Hammerfest LNG plant in Norway.

Eesti Gas said in a statement in April that the LNG cargo delivered onboard Solaris was purchased from TotalEnergies to cover the increased gas demand as the the originally planned ten cargoes until autumn were not enough.

The latest LNG shipment to Inkoo arrived onboard the 173,400-cbm, Minerva Limnos, from the US as well.

Eesti Gas said in the statement last week that it has significantly increased its share in the Finnish gas market during the current year.

In April of this year, the company’s market share in Finland reached 36 percent.

The firm said that most of its 2023 cargoes will arrive at the Inkoo terminal, where it is currently the only importer.

At the beginning of June, the company will bring its fifth consecutive LNG shipload to Finland, it said.

Although gas consumption decreased in Finland and elsewhere in the region in 2022 due to high prices, Elenger expects consumption to recover in the next few years.

Finland’s Gasgrid recently said that it has allocated all of the offered capacity at the FSRU-based terminal in the second and third quarters of this year.

The firm also awarded an additional regas slot for July.

Gasgrid expects about two vessels per month to arrive at the FSRU-based facility.

Earlier this year, the firm also received approval to start offering reloading services at the facility to boost the terminal’s utilization rate.