At the Ulsan shipyard in South Korea, the first two LNG carriers built for the Orlen Group by Hyundai Heavy Industries were ceremonially named.

The first LNG carrier, named Lech Kaczyński, is now ready for operation. The second vessel - Grażyna Gęsicka - will enter service in 2023. Orlen has ordered eight methane carriers in total. They will be owned by the Norwegian company Knutsen, while the Polish company will use them on a long-term charter basis.

The London office of PST (PGNiG Supply & Trading) manages LNG purchases. As Ireneusz Łazor explains, in the structure of transactions on the LNG market, a number of other costs are added to the price of gas. "A very significant cost is generated by transport. It can either significantly improve the economics of the entire transaction, or even reduce its profitability, or even cause losses. Having our own LNG carriers allows us to effectively manage a number of costs associated with the transport of gas, which are often decisive for the profitability of such transactions" - he emphasizes.

Initially, PST purchased gas in the DES (Delivered Ex Ship) formula, where all costs are under the control of the seller, the buyer only pays the price set by the seller for delivery to the indicated point - the LNG terminal. For several months, it has also been conducting FOB (Free On Board) transactions, where cost management is already on the part of the buyer.

The Orlen Group has FOB contracts with Venture Global in its portfolio, signed in 2018 and annexed in 2021, when it was agreed to increase the volumes of deliveries from American terminals in the Gulf of Mexico: Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines. The first contract provides for the collection of 1.5 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2023, the second - 4 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2026 at the earliest.

As Ireneusz Łazor reminds, the daily prices of chartering a ship are significant and depend on many factors. He emphasized that in spot transactions before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, it was about of 60,000 dollars daily. At the price peaks after the outbreak of the war, it was even 300-500 thousand dollars daily.

- Having your own ship, you can also effectively manage other costs - vessel and cargo insurance, port costs, an auditor who confirms what has been loaded and unloaded. Having our own transport, i.e. its cost under control, we can effectively manage purchases - added the head of the London office.

Łazor assessed that the most important advantage of having own ships is the ability to decide from where, where to, when and how quickly the cargo will be delivered.

- Not always sailing fast, it comes out the most economical. So we have a special team that calculates all these parameters on an ongoing basis and as a result the captain receives instructions on what to do. We can decide on an ongoing basis where a given vessel is sailing, we have the freedom to act and the ability to decide what to do. With today's costs and margins, the impact of these various additional factors can be critical to the profitability of a deal. That's why it's worth having transport on your side - he stressed.