ORLEN has signed a five-year exclusive agreement with Lithuania’s KN Energies, formerly known as Klaipedos Nafta, which grants it sole access to a small-scale LNG reloading wharf station in Klaipėda.

Source: ORLEN

This partnership will enhance gas supply to northeastern Poland and the wider Baltic region. Since the start of a previous contract, ORLEN has received nearly 60,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas through the Klaipėda terminal.

This current agreement with KN Energies, effective until March 2030, ensures that LNG received by ORLEN at the Lithuanian reloading station will be transported by road tankers to customers primarily in northeastern Poland. This supply chain is essential for business clients and LNG regasification stations in areas not served by the existing gas network. This transport method is notably more efficient than relying solely on shipments from the Świnoujście terminal, which is Poland's main LNG import hub.

The extension of our partnership with KN Energies is a significant milestone in reinforcing our position in the Baltic region’s LNG market. While the Świnoujście terminal remains a crucial hub for our LNG operations, the Klaipėda reloading station plays a vital complementary role, allowing us to optimise the cost of logistics.Beyond serving the Polish market, the LNG sourced there is also supplied to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, where we are witnessing growing interest in cooperation with ORLEN.

The Klaipėda reloading terminal is equipped with five LNG tanks, providing a total capacity of 5,000 cubic meters of liquefied gas. It is supplied by vessels with capacities 30 times smaller than traditional ocean-going methane carriers, and it features wharf infrastructure suitable for handling LNG cargoes and reloading them onto smaller vessels.

We believe that this agreement will flourish further cooperation with Orlen and will provide favourable conditions for even greater LNG loading volumes through the reloading station to LNG semitrailers and will create added value for our client and the entire Polish and Baltic region. Although it is a small-scale LNG terminal, it has huge potential and significance for the entire LNG value chain. We appreciate the constructive cooperation with our partners in Poland.

In addition to small-scale LNG operations, the ORLEN Group imports substantial volumes of LNG through a floating terminal run by KN Energies in Klaipėda. It has secured long-term regasification capacity, reserved until 2032, enabling it to import over 0.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually via the terminal. To date, ORLEN has received 10 cargoes, amounting to approximately 656,000 tonnes. After regasification, the LNG is distributed to customers in the Baltic states and the Polish market, facilitated by the Gas Interconnection Poland–Lithuania (GIPL) pipeline, which has been operational since May 2022.