Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm FSRU Exemplar has loaded a cargo of liquefied natural gas and is on its way to Finland to start serving the newly built Inkoo LNG terminal operated by Gasgrid.
The vessel, which can supply more than 5 billion cubic meters per year of regasification capacity, will serve Finland and other Baltic states under a 10-year charter deal Gasgrid signed with the US LNG firm in May.
Earlier this month, the vessel left Navantia’s yard in El Ferrol, Spain, to pick up a cargo and then head to Inkoo. The unit was on December 16 still located off Gibraltar.
Gasgrid confirmed that the vessel took a cargo on Monday but the firm did not provide any further information.
The FSRU probably received a cargo in a ship-to-ship operation.
FSRU to arrive in Inkoo December 25-28
Gasgrid said in a separate statement on Tuesday that the estimated arrival time of the vessel is December 25-28, depending on weather conditions.
According to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue, Exemplar is expected to arrive in Inkoo on December 26.
Gagrid also said that construction work on the port terminal had been completed in the deep harbor area in Inkoo.
The work began in August and the contract included the pier and mooring structures and systems needed by the FSRU as well as the construction of a 2.2 kilometers long gas pipeline.
“Gasgrid has implemented the LNG floating terminal project to secure the supply of gas to industry, energy production and households as well as to safeguard Finland’s security of supply from winter 2023 onwards,” the firm said.
Floating LNG Terminal Finland (FLTF), a unit of Gasgrid and the operator of the FSRU-based terminal, has already invited market participants to submit offers for a total of seven capacity slots for the first quarter next year and also for the April-September period.
Gasgrid previously said it expects to launch commercial operations at the facility in mid-January.
Besides this facility, Hamina LNG launched commercial operations in October at its small LNG import terminal in Finland’s Hamina port.
Hamina LNG provides storage services from one 30,000-cbm LNG tank as well as regasification and injection services into the Finnish gas transmission network with a daily capacity of 4,800 MWh.