First small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) reload operation at the Port of Klaipeda in Lithuania took place on January 2, 2017, the country’s natural gas trading company Litgas informed.

The 2012-built LNG carrier Coral Energy loaded 15,000 cubic meters of LNG from the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Independence.

The cargo will be transported to one of the small-scale LNG terminals in the Baltic Sea.

The operation is the first under the agreement inked in late December between the Scandinavian LNG provider Skangas and Norwegian oil and gas major Statoil for a small-scale LNG reload at the Klaipeda LNG Terminal.

The Lithuanian LNG terminal is currently the only facility in the Baltic Sea that can reload natural gas to smaller LNG carriers, according to Litgas.

Skangas earlier said that the LNG reload in Lithuania could be a natural next step to further increase the support for the development of the small-scale market in Northern Europe.