Finland and Estonia have agreed to place Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm FSRU Exemplar in the Finnish port of Inkoo.
Gasgrid said on Monday that the two country’s have made a decision in principle under which the floating LNG terminal would be placed in the port area of Inkoo at the end of this year.
Excelerate’s FSRU will serve Finland, Estonia, and other Baltic states under a 10-year charter deal Gasgrid signed with the US LNG firm in May.
Finland and Estonia previously agreed that the FSRU would dock either at Inkoo or Estonia’s Paldiski, depending on which facility is completed first.
Gasgrid and Fortum are working on the LNG import facility in the port of Inkoo, while Estonia’s Elering, Alexela, and Infortar are building the LNG terminal in Paldiski.
The two country’s agreed that the LNG terminal would ensure the gas supply of both Estonia and Finland on equal terms in order to reduce the risks of security of supply in the coming winter, Gasgrid said in the statement.
The Finnish state-owned natural gas transmission system operator is expecting the first commissioning cargo to arrive at the FSRU in mid-December while the commercial operations should start in January 2023.
The FSRU, which can supply more than 5 billion cubic meters per year of regasification capacity, arrived at Navantia’s yard in El Ferrol, Spain, from Argentina on September 22.
Excelerate previously said that Exemplar would go to a dry dock in Spain for maintenance and winterization before sailing on to the Baltic Sea to provide LNG regasification services.
