Multilateral debt closed for Lithuanian LNG terminal

Helsinki-based Nordic Investment Bank has agreed a €34.8 million ($43 million) loan with the operator of Lithuania’s first LNG FSRU vessel in a bid to "increase the security of the country’s natural gas supply and improve its competitiveness". The bank said in a statement that the debt will mature over a 20-year tenor and will be used to fund gas purchases for the vessel at the Port of Klaipeda.

The Lithuanian government, keen to ease dependence on Russian gas supplies, approved the loan in the summer at a 2% per year interest rate. State-owned Klaipedos Nafta is the project sponsor and was mandated to manage the scheme in 2010. The company chartered the FSRU vessel, named Independence, for a 10-year period at a cost of $500 million. The vessel was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. It has a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic metres and a regasification capacity of 11.3 million cubic metres per day. The vessel docked at Klaipeda in late October, with commercial operations set to begin within weeks.