Greece’s Motor Oil is planning to decide on its Dioriga Gas FSRU project near Corinth by the end of this year.
The company said in a strategy presentation posted on its website this week that it plans to take a final investment decision on the project in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Motor Oil expects to complete the FSRU-based terminal in the fourth quarter of 2023 or in 2024, the presentation shows.
Also, the “hydrogen-ready” project would have a peak regasification capacity of 490,000 Nm3/h or 132 GWs/d and would benefit from existing infrastructure and access to the national gas pipeline in proximity to the Corinth refinery, Motor Oil said.
In May, Motor Oil revealed plans to import LNG in the future from UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) via its planned Dioriga Gas FSRU.
Prior to that, Dioriga Gas, a unit of Motor Oil, said that fifteen firms had shown interest in booking capacity at the FSRU-based import project, following a non-binding market test.
The terminal would be located about 70 km from Athens, in the area of Agioi Theodori, near Motor Oil’s refinery.
It would have a maximum storage capacity of up to 210,000 cbm and it would connect to a jetty about 150 meters from the coast.
Binding expression of interest
According to the Dioriga Gas website, the LNG terminal developer invited firms on October 30 to submit binding offers for capacity booking.
Dioriga Gas noted that both the companies that participated in the first, non-binding market test, as well as those that did not participate, are eligible to participate in the binding market test phase.
Moreover, the deadline for submitting binding offers for all parties participating in the binding phase is December 15, 2022.
“The binding offers to reserve capacity on the Dioriga terminal are expected to highlight the importance of this infrastructure for enhancing the security of supply of Greece and the wider region at competitive prices and without geopolitical constraints,” Dioriga Gas said.
Greece currently imports LNG via DESFA’s import terminal located on the island of Revithoussa and imports via this facility jumped to record 60 cargoes in the January-September period due to significantly higher volumes from the US.
The country will get new LNG import facilities as European countries look to boost energy security and ditch Russian pipeline gas.
Greece’s Gastrade officially started building the country’s first FSRU-based project in Alexandroupolis in May this year.
Gastrade is also planning to install a second FSRU offshore Alexandroupolis and it won a license for this project while there are plans for other such projects as well.