Greece’s Gastrade has postponed the launch of commercial operations at its FSRU-based LNG import terminal off Alexandroupolis.
“Due to a technical issue that was faced during the commissioning process of the terminal, commercial operations has not yet been reached,” a Gastrade spokeswoman told LNG Prime on Thursday.
“The company will advise on a new COD (commercial operation date) soon,” she said.
The spokeswoman said on April 5 that Gastrade planned to launch commercial operations at the end of April and receive the next LNG cargo in mid-May.
The spokeswoman said that this LNG cargo will also be postponed.
She did not provide further information.
The 2018-built 174,000-cbm LNG carrier, GasLog Hong Kong, delivered on February 18 the commissioning cargo from the US to the 153,600-cbm Alexandroupolis.
This LNG carrier, chartered by France’s TotalEnergies, brought the shipment from Sempra’s Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana, while Gastrade’s shareholder DEPA sold some of these commissioning volumes to Moldova’s state-owned energy firm Energocom.
Besides DEPA, Gastrade’s shareholders include founder Copelouzou, DESFA, Bulgartransgaz, and GasLog.
First Greek FSRU
This is Greece’s first FSRU and the second LNG import facility, adding to DESFA’s import terminal located on the island of Revithoussa.
The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal will have a capacity of 5.5 bcm.
Greece’s FSRU arrived in Alexandroupolis from Singapore on December 17, 2023, while mooring hook-up was completed on December 23.
The 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, the facility sends regasfied LNG to a high-pressure subsea and onshore gas transmission pipeline.
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 previously said.