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Anthony Veder's Coral Energy is set to be the first small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker to load LNG at the port of Klaipeda, Lithuania.

UAB Litgas, the natural gas supply and trading arm of the state energy group Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy), will be responsible for supplying the LNG-powered vessel with up to 15,000 cubic metres of LNG when it arrives in Klaipeda between 1st and 2nd January.

The Coral Energy, operated by Skangas, will be the first small LNG tanker loaded under an agreement signed last September by Litgas, Lietuvos Duju Tiekimas (Lithuanian Gas Supply) and Norway's Statoil. Under the three-way agreement, Statoil sells LNG to small-scale buyers and Litgas and Lietuvos Duju Tiekimas provide modulation and balancing services.

"We will start 2017 with an important deal. We will reload the first small-scale LNG cargo in Klaipeda. This is a new activity for our group, one of the strategic directions in the gas trade business," Lietuvos Energija CEO Dalius Misiunas said in a statement.

Cooperation with Statoil - Background

The concept of a joint cooperation to develop an LNG bunkering service in Lithuania was identified in a five-year supply contract signed by Litgas and Statoil in August 2014.

As part of the agreement, Statoil was contracted to supply an annual volume of 540 million cubic metres (cbm) of natural gas (approximately 950,000 cbm of LNG) to ensure the continuous operation of the Klaipeda LNG terminal.

This was followed in July 2015, when Litgas, Lietuvos Energija and Statoil signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up a joint venture company in Lithuania to provide small-scale LNG bunkering.

EU funding for LNG project

Last month, Bunker Index reported that the European Commission's (EC) Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) had confirmed a grant agreement to fund Klaipedos Nafta's LNG infrastructure project. The EUR 4 million is to be used to develop an LNG reloading station, small-scale LNG equipment for Klaipedos Nafta's LNG Terminal and LNG jetty equipment.

The construction of the company's LNG reloading station is ongoing and is scheduled to begin operating in the second half of 2017.

The contract to build the facility was awarded in February to Chart Ferox, a subsidiary of Chart Industries Inc., along with EPC consortium partner PPS Pipeline Systems Germany.

The LNG regasification facility will have the capacity to supply natural gas at a rate of 6,000 normal metres cubed (Nm3) per hour. The current plant design also has a provision for future expansion, which could double the station's storage capacity.

LNG supply vessel in Klaipeda

In October, Bomin Linde LNG GmbH & Co. KG confirmed that it had inked a time-charter contract with shipowner Bernhard Shulte for what is set to be the world's largest LNG bunker supply vessel.

The new 7,500-cubic-metre Bernhard Shulte vessel is being chartered by a joint venture - established in November 2015 - in which Bomin Linde LNG has a 90 percent share in the business and Klaipedos Nafta owns the remaining 10 percent.

The vessel is to be used to supply ships and small-scale LNG terminals along the Baltic Sea coast. For Klaipedos Nafta, operator of the Klaipeda Oil Terminal in Klaipeda, the vessel will be used to transport LNG to its onshore LNG reloading station.