Gastrade: Alexandroupolis FSRU remains offline due to technical issue

“For the moment, regasification services have been suspended due to a technical issue, for which we will provide further updates when more information becomes available,” a spokeswoman for Gastrade told LNG Prime on Wednesday.

Gastrade’s spokeswoman did not provide further details regarding the technical issue.

The Greek company first announced the unavailability of regasification services on January 23, and one day after that, it said that the “Alexandroupolis LNG terminal has resumed regasification services with a maximum estimated available regasification capacity of 31,300,000 kWh/d.”

However, the company said in a statement on January 28 that the regasification services will not be available until further notice.

As previously reported by LNG Prime, UK-based energy giant BP supplied an LNG cargo to Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz via the Alexandroupolis FSRU last month.

The 2021-built 174,000-cbm, BW Lesmes, delivered the shipment from the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas to the 153,500-cbm FSRU, Alexandroupolis, on January 19.

The spokeswoman said that the volumes brought by BP onboard BW Lesmes have been partially delivered to the grid.

Next LNG shipment

Asked about the upcoming LNG shipment to the Alexandrouplis FSRU, she said that Gastrade expects “information on the next shipment to become available in the coming days.”

This LNG shipment is expected to be delivered by a unit of US LNG exporter Venture Global LNG to Bulgargaz.

In November last year, Bulgargaz picked UK-based BP Gas Marketing, a unit of BP, and US-based Venture Global Commodities to supply two spot LNG cargoes via the Alexandrouplis FSRU-based terminal in January and February this year.

This new delivery by BP marked the fourth commercial LNG delivery to the FSRU-based facility in Alexandrouplis.

Gastrade’s FSRU received its first commercial LNG shipment from Equinor’s Hammerfest LNG terminal in Norway on October 3, 2024.

This shipment was supplied to Bulgargaz by French energy giant TotalEnergies.

In addition, Total Energies also supplied Bulgargaz with one LNG shipment in November and the other in December.

The November LNG cargo was sourced from Sempra’s Cameron LNG terminal in Louisiana, while the December cargo arrived from Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana.

Gastrade’s shareholders include founder Copelouzou, DESFA, DEPA, Bulgartransgaz, and GasLog.

This is Greece’s first FSRU and the second LNG import terminal, adding to DESFA’s Revithoussa LNG terminal.

The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal has a capacity of up to 5.5 bcm per year, or some 66.3 TWh per year.