Hamina LNG said it plans to launch commercial operations at its delayed LNG import terminal in the Hamina port in October this year.
The LNG terminal developer is a joint venture consisting of Finland’s Hamina Energy, tech firm Wartsila, and Estonia’s energy company Alexela.
In order to carry out the finishing work for the Hamina LNG terminal, the firm said in a statement released on Monday it has concluded a contract with Finland’s Viafin Process Piping.
Following completion of the work, the terminal would launch a commissioning phase aiming at commercial use in October 2022, Hamina LNG said.
Viafin has been involved in the LNG terminal project from the beginning. The firm was responsible for the mechanical installations outside the terminal’s 30,000-cbm tank, Hamina LNG said.
Construction work on the facility started in October 2017, while the partners held a groundbreaking ceremony in September 2018.
The partners previously delayed the launch of the terminal in 2020 and 2021.
According to a statement posted by Hamina LNG in February this year, the JV had decided to dissolve the contract with Wartsila, which had previously served as the main contractor of the facility.
Instead, the JV said Germany-based TGE Gas Engineering, which worked as a technical consultant for Hamina LNG, would continue to support the project, the statement said.
Plans to boost capacity
Hamina LNG says this facility is currently the only LNG import terminal in Finland connected to the country’s natural gas transmission system.
Besides this facility, Finland has the Pori and Tornio LNG terminals.
The facility in Hamina will be able to receive LNG vessels with a capacity of 5,000 cbm to 25,000 cbm and has a truck loading station.
Following completion, the facility would supply about 3 TWh per year to the grid, but there are plans to increase the capacity, according to Hamina LNG.
In addition to grid supply, distribution of gas by road transport could reach a volume of 3 TWh per year, boosting the facility’s throughput in the initial stage to as much as 6 TWh per year, Hamina LNG said.
Also, Hamina LNG said it has started planning work to gradually increase the supply capacity of the facility.
Hamina LNG says it could double the supply capacity to the transmission network this year, and in the next stage to further increase it to a level of about 7 TWh per year.
After this, the terminal has the capabilities to increase the supply capacity to the grid even more, it said.
The launch of the facility comes at a time when Finland is looking to reduce its reliance on Russian gas supplies.
In that regard, Finland and Estonia are also planning to jointly charter a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to import LNG.