LNG bunker vessel Kairos docks in Klaipeda

VILNIUS - The world's largest LNG bunker vessel Kairos has docked in the port of Klaipeda after having been anchored off Lithuania for around three weeks. 

"(The vessel) is in the port," Dovile Ringis, spokeswoman for the Klaipeda port authority, confirmed to BNS.  

Klaipedos Nafta, the Klaipeda LNG terminal's operator, would not comment on the Kairos' operations in the port, saying the ship is currently at the disposal of another company, Nauticor. 

"Our first planned operation at the FSRU Independence is scheduled for next week. We will be able to provide a more detailed comment then," the operator told BNS. 

The Kairos will be operated by a joint venture between Germany's Nauticor and Klaipedos Nafta and used, among other things, for handling LNG from the FSRU to the Klaipeda LNG reloading station. 

The new bunker vessel is owned by Babcock Schulte Energy, a joint venture between Babcock International Group and Bernhard Schulte, and is leased to Klaipedos Nafta and Nauticor.

In November 2015, SGD Logistika, a subsidiary of Klaipedos Nafta, signed a joint venture agreement with its partner Bomin Linde LNG (now Nauticor) for joint operation of the bunker vessel. Nauticor owns 90 percent of shares in the joint venture named Blue LNG and Klaipedos Nafta holds the remaining 10 percent. 

The construction of the vessel started in 2016 when the joint venture signed a time-charter agreement with Babcock Schulte Energy. The inauguration ceremony took place at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Ulsan, South Korea, in February 2018.