Greece’s Gastrade expects to receive on January 20 the commissioning cargo at its FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Alexandroupolis.
The firm launched a tender on October 31 for the supply of the commissioning cargo and relevant services. It extended the deadline for two times and the second deadline extension ended on December 15.
“The commissioning cargo is anticipated to arrive on the 20th of January in which then commissioning will begin and will last for 6-7 weeks,” Gastrade told LNG Prime in emailed comments on Wednesday.
Gastrade did not say who won the tender for the commissioning cargo.
“If no major issues arise during commissioning, the project will reach commercial operations in the first week of March, as planned,” the firm said.
Gastrade’s shareholders include founder Copelouzou, DESFA, DEPA, Bulgartransgaz, and GasLog.
Shareholder and Greek LNG shipping firm GasLog told Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine, now Seatrium, in February 2022 to proceed with the conversion of the 2010-built, GasLog Chelsea, to an FSRU.
After that, the vessel entered the yard in February last year and the partners renamed it to Alexandroupolis.
Seatrium’s yard in Singapore completed the conversion work on the 153,600-cbm Alexandroupolis in November last year.
Hook-up completed
Greece’s first FSRU arrived in Alexandroupolis from Singapore on December 17.
“The FSRU, upon arriving to site on Sunday 17th of December, has been safely hooked up to its mooring system at its permanent mooring position,” Gastrade said.
“Mooring hook-up was completed on the 23rd of December 2023,” the firm said.
The first FSRU is located in the sea of Thrace at a distance of 17.6 km SW from the port of Alexandroupolis and 10 km from the nearest coast of Makri. Also, it will be connected to a high-pressure subsea and onshore gas transmission pipeline.
Once operational, the pipeline will deliver natural gas to the Greek transmission system and onwards to the final consumers in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia and further to Moldova and Ukraine to the East and Hungary and Slovakia to the West, Gastrade said.
The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal will have a capacity of 5.5 Bcm.
With this project, Greece will get its first FSRU and the second LNG import facility, adding to DESFA’s import terminal located on the island of Revithoussa.
In addition to this unit, Gastrade is also planning to install a second FSRU offshore Alexandroupolis.