Lithuania Delays US LNG Imports on Quality

The US is close to becoming a major LNG exporter, but Lithuania is no longer bidding for US output. The likeliest destinations for the first cargo, as the 160,000m³ LNG carrier Energy Atlantic starts her approach to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass facility, are thought to be Brazil and France.

Lithuania’s gas supply and trading company Litgas says the quality is not sufficiently guaranteed. “The gas does not meet the LNG quality standards we have here. In other words, the chemical composition of the US gas is not up to the technical requirements of the Lithuanian gas system. If they become consistent in the future, we will be talking (to American LNG exporters),” holding company Lietuvos Energija told NGE. “Basically, the US LNG is in line with the Lithuanian standards, but the US gas specification may be subject to change during the LNG production process. Ahead of the introductory exports and with no history on the parameters of the LNG specification, it is uncertain whether the US’s LNG meets the rather narrow LNG gas quality requirements Lithuania has,” she said.

Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass liquefaction facility is scheduled to export its first LNG cargo later this month or early next. Each of the six trains has a nominal capacity of 4.5mn mt/year. Lithuania’s energy minister Rokas Masiulis has long repeated that Lithuania is “interested very much in US LNG export”, but insisted that key issue is the price of the gas which seemed a little too high for Lithuania.

Linas Jegelevicius