LNG

Greek liquefied natural gas project leader Gastrade has said that delays were being experienced for the start-up of Greece’s Alexandroupolis floating LNG import hub to supply Balkan gas grids.

A Greek joint venture has held a ceremony for the construction of a gas-fired power plant that will help underpin the LNG floating storage and regasification (FSRU) project at the eastern Greek port of Alexandroupolis.

The Alexandroupolis Power Plant is being built by a consortium of Greece’s three major energy groups, PPC, DEPA (the Public Gas Corporation of Greece ) and Damco Energy, a unit of the Copelouzos Group.

The launch ceremony for the power project was attended by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis as well as others involved in supporting the Greek and Balkans region project, including representatives of the Bulgarian and US governments.

The power plant will be directly connected to the FSRU import project led by Greek company Gastrade and with the vessel being provided by one of the world’s leading LNG carrier companies GasLog.

“Alexandroupolis is turning into an energy junction of electricity and natural gas networks, with the potential of supplying the domestic market and neighbouring countries in Southeast Europe,” said a statement.

The FSRU will consist of a permanently moored FSRU and a pipeline system of 28 kilometres connecting the floating unit to the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission System (NNGTS).

Aegean location

The vessel will be stationed in the north-eastern part of the Aegean Sea and about 17.6km from the town of Alexandroupolis.

The GasLog vessel will have a storage capacity of 153,500 cubic metres and a nominal gas send-out rate of 625,000 cubic metres per hour.

The new power plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2025. It will be a combined-cycle facility with installed capacity of 840 megawatts, which is approximately the net capacity of three coal-fired plants currently being decommissioned.

“We are here to welcome a project that is changing the energy landscape and Greece is now shielded,” said Christos Copelouzos, Chief Executive of the Copelouzos Group.

“At the same time, a new energy pillar is being created for Southeast Europe, as our country will be able to export electricity to the neighbouring Balkan states, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and even Serbia,” he added.

“As a Group, we chose the location of the plant here in Alexandroupolis. After all, for years we have been paying special attention to the wider Evros region, fully acknowledging its important geostrategic position,” explained the CEO.

“We are creating infrastructure, which, together with other projects under implementation in the region, such as the FSRU Alexandroupolis, will generate opportunities for the development of the local economy and many new and permanent jobs,” he stated.

“With confidence in Greece and its people, we at Copelouzos Group will continue to develop projects of ‘national identity’. These include investments that are being thoroughly prepared, such as the electrical interconnection between Greece and Egypt and offshore wind farms,” he concluded.

Jan 3 (LNGJ) - The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez has held talks with Bulgarian Energy Minister Rossen Hristov on the European Union nation receiving regasified LNG supplies from Turkey.

   The talks covered negotiating to reserve a capacity of 1 billion cubic metres per annum from one or more of Turkey’s four LNG import facilities and for the volumes to be transferred by pipeline to the Bulgarian border by the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corp. (BOTAS) network.

Greece, the leading nation in liquefied natural gas shipping, has held a ceremony attended by the Greek and Bulgarian prime ministers marking the advancement of the Alexandroupolis floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and revealing that a second FSRU was planned.

Greece’s Copelouzos Group has signed contracts for the implementation of a gas-fired combined-cycle power plant planned for the eastern Greek port of Alexandroupolis where an offshore LNG import terminal is planned.

Copelouzos said the contracts were for the supply and the long-term maintenance of the main equipment for the 840-megawatts facility being developed along with Greece’s Damco Energy SA and General Electric of the US.

The floating LNG terminal is a separate project from the onshore power plant and is being developed by Greek company Gastrade.

The Alexandroupolis LNG floating storage and regasification unit will have storage capacity of 170,000 cubic metres and regasification capacity of at least 5.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per annum.

The FSRU will be moored in an offshore area about 17.6 kilometres southwest of the port of Alexandroupolis.

The floating unit will be connected to the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission grid through a pipeline system of a total length of 28km.

Copelouzos said that for its power plant project the company subsidiary Ilektroparagogi Alexandroupolis SA will be responsible for the implementation of the investment and construction will start before the end of 2021 and be completed by the spring of 2024.

Copelouzos added that the building of the gas-fired plant would strengthen the local economy as well as when operation start.

“During the construction 600 people are going to be employed, while it is estimated that 90 permanent job positions will be created during the whole lifetime of the project,” explained Copelouzos.

“In addition, and in conjunction the other projects of the Copelouzos Group, the unit will make the area of Alexandroupolis an energy hub, a fact that will attract further investments and result in economic growth and prosperity of the greater area,” it stated.

Greek company Gastrade, the lead developer of a joint venture floating LNG terminal offshore Greece’s northeast port of Alexandroupolis to serve the Balkans, has signed accords with two utilities in North Macedonia, a part of the former Yugoslavia until 1991 when it became an independent state.

North Macedonia, previously a republic of the former Yugoslavia, said it would soon start construction of a natural gas pipeline interconnector to southern neighbour Greece to enable the import of US LNG cargoes via the floating import facility planned for offshore the Greek port of Alexandroupolis.

Gastrade, a Greek utility company and developer of the Alexandroupolis floating LNG terminal, has launched the second phase of a market test for the project to gauge demand in Greece and the Balkan states.

Jan 9 (LNGJ) - The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at the opening of US-Bulgarian trade talks that the Balkan nation planned to buy a 20 percent stake in a floating liquefied natural gas import terminal off northern Greece.

   Borissov said that the Bulgarian stake in the terminal would be the same as that of Greece’s state energy company DEPA and would be held by gas company Bulgartransgaz. The terminal is being developed by Greek company Gastrade off the Greek port of Alexandroupolis. The LNG terminal stake would give Bulgaria an alternative source of gas supplies to the recently started Turkstream pipeline from Russia via Turkey.

The liquefied natural gas hub and terminal project planned by Greek company Gastrade for the port of Alexandroupolis to serve the Balkans has revised its invitation for expressions of interest as the delivery of the floating storage and regasification unit will take six months longer than originally scheduled.