Gazprom to build LNG terminal in Kaliningrad region by 2018
MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) - Gazprom plans to build an LNG regasification terminal on the Baltic Sea coast in Kaliningrad region with capacity for 2.4 million tonnes a year.
Given that Kaliningrad region is physically separate from the rest of Russia, "the regasification terminal, which will be connected to the existing gas pipeline in the vicinity of the Kaliningrad underground gas storage facility, will make it possible to supply consumers in the region and pump gas into underground storage," Gazprom said in a press release.
Several sites are being considered for the plant, which will have capacity for at least 9 million cubic meters a day (roughly 3.3 billion cubic meters a year or 2.4 million tonnes of LNG). The justification for investment will be completed in 2014.
The terminal is scheduled to receive its first shipment of LNG at the end of 2017.
"Initially, LNG will be purchased from the international market. Afterward, it will be supplied by the Baltic LNG project, whose first line is slated to begin operating at the end of 2018," Gazprom said.
In 2009, Gazprom upgraded the Minsk-Vilnius-Kaunas-Kaliningrad gas pipeline and the Krasnoznamenskaya compressor station, almost doubling capacity on the pipeline to 2.5 billion cubic meters a year. In September 2013, the first phase of the Kaliningrad underground storage facility entered service. The facility has working capacity for 52 million cubic meters of gas, which can be withdrawn at the rate of 4.8 million cubic meters a day. Kaliningrad region consumes 5.9 million cubic meters of gas a day on average.
Another area for improving the reliability of energy supplies to the region is to accelerate capacity upgrades at the Kaliningrad storage facility, increasing the number of reservoirs in the salt formation to 14 from two currently, to raise working capacity to 800 million cubic meters in 2025.
Gazprom will build the regasification terminal and upgrade storage capacity simultaneously.
"Today gas can only be shipped to the region on a gas pipeline passing through foreign countries; the appearance of the regasification terminal and the underground storage facility will vastly increase the region's energy security. It will be able to supply itself with gas autonomously for a two month period at a minimum. Most importantly, the additional gas volumes will foster industrial development in the region, providing jobs and intensive socioeconomic growth," Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller is quoted in the press release as saying.