Kaliningrad FSRU set to return to Russian exclave

The 174,000m³ Marshal Vasilevskiy LNG carrier is set to return to Russia's Kaliningrad, where it was previously installed as a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).

The vessel, which is under a time charter with Russia's state-controlled Gazprom, has declared for arrival at Kaliningrad on 8 January, having delivered a Nigerian LNG cargo from the 22mn t/yr Bonny Island complex to Spain's 5mn t/yr Bilbao regasification terminal.

Gazprom installed the FSRU in January 2019, but the Marshal Vasilevskiy received no deliveries after arriving laden.

The vessel was offered on the spot market as an LNG carrier for March-July, when Austrian firm OMV chartered the FSRU for around $45,000/d, market participants said. A steep contango in European des prices led OMV to use the vessel as floating storage. It held offshore the Dutch 8.7mn t/yr Gate import facility with a cargo reloaded at the terminal from 18 August-4 November.

The Marshal Vasilevskiy continued to operate on the spot market after unloading at Gate, including loading a cargo at the US' 25mn t/yr Sabine Pass liquefaction facility.

Gazprom had intended to supply its Kaliningrad FSRU with production from its planned 1.5mn t/yr Portovaya liquefaction project, located in Leningrad Oblast. The firm had planned to commission the export project by the end of 2019, but has yet to do so.

By Samuel Good