Energy, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Legislation, Lithuania, Port, Transport

The German contractor, which participated in the public procurement process jointly with the Czech engineering equipment supplier Chart Ferox, submitted a 45.3-million-euro bid, which was rejected as too expensive, Indre Miliniene, spokeswoman for Klaipedos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil), the LNG terminal's operator, told BNS.

As other participants did not submit final bids, Klaipedos Nafta will launch a new search for a contractor, she said.

The first tender process was launched last July. Klaipedos Nafta on Jan. 18, 2016 rejected the sole bid, worth 45.284 million euros, by PPS Pipeline Systems and Chart Ferox as too high, according to the public procurement report.

The potential participants that did not submit their bids were Germany's Linde AG, Spain's Sener Enginieria y Sistemas, a consortium led by Lithuania's Irema, as well as Lithuania's Kauno Dujotiekio Statyba jointly with Germany's TGE Gas Engineering.

Klaipedos Nafta plans to build by the start of next year a 27-million-euro onshore LNG reloading station and to offer LNG bunkering and truck loading services to customers in the Baltic countries and Poland.

Klaipedos Nafta is developing the project together with Germany's LNG supplier Bomin Linde LNG. The companies have established a joint venture, called Blue LNG, that will provide LNG bunkering services in the port of Klaipeda, as well as in the Baltic and North Seas.

The joint venture will be based in Germany and will lease a bunker supply vessel with a capacity of more than 7,000 cubic meters at a fee that is not being disclosed to the public. The vessel is expected to be ordered in the near future and be built by early 2017.