Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm FSRU Exemplar is heading towards Europe after the 2010-built LNG vessel completed its winter supply contract in Argentina.
The FSRU arrived at Argentina’s Bahia Blanca LNG terminal in May to deliver LNG for the 2022 winter season in Argentina.
Under the three-month contract the vessel received 12 LNG cargoes, according to US FSRU player Excelerate.
“Today, Exemplar departs Bahia Blanca and sails to dry dock in Spain for maintenance and winterization before sailing on to the Baltic Sea to provide LNG regasification services to both Finland and Estonia,” Excelerate said in a social media post on Wednesday.
This would be the first Atlantic crossing for the Argentine officers and crew of the FSRU, it said.
Excelerate’s Exemplar will serve Finland, Estonia, and other Baltic states under a 10-year charter deal the US LNG firm signed with Finland’s Gasgrid in May.
Prior to that, Finland and Estonia agreed to jointly charter an FSRU to import LNG, as European countries look to reduce reliance on Russian gas supplies.
The FSRU can supply more than 5 billion cubic meters per year of regasification capacity.
Gasgrid and compatriot Fortum recently finalized a deal to place the country’s first FSRU in the port of Inkoo.
Located on Finland’s south coast, the port in Inkoo is deep enough for the purpose and is close to pipelines along which gas flows to end-users in industrial and other sectors in Finland, Estonia, and the Baltic Sea region, Gasgrid said.
According to Gasgrid, work has already started on building the port structures and natural gas pipeline.
“The ambition is to begin deploying the LNG terminal vessel in December 2022,” it said.