LNG

Aktor’s joint venture with Greece’s state gas supplier Depa has signed a deal with Venture Global to import US LNG for domestic use and re-export to Ukraine and Romania. Initial re-exports are intended to start as early as 2026.

Greece has signed its first long-term LNG supply contract, agreeing to purchase at least 700 million cubic meters annually from Venture Global for the next 20 years. The LNG will be procured by a Greek partnership between AKTOR and DEPA Commercial, with an option to expand the annual offtake to 2 billion cubic meters.

Seatrium Group of Singapore, formerly called Sembcorp Marine Ltd and renamed as Seatrium following its merger with Keppel Offshore & Marine, has made the successful delivery and hand-over of the Greek “FSRU Alexandroupoli” to be deployed offshore northeast Greece as part of a Balkans LNG supply hub.

Keppel Shipyard in Singapore has started work on the conventional LNG carrier “GasLog Chelsea” to convert the vessel to a floating storage and regasification unit to be deployment as an import terminal in eastern Greece to supply the Balkans region.

The FSRU will be stationed in the north-eastern part of the Aegean Sea and about 17.6 kilometres (11 miles) from the costal Greek town of Alexandroupolis.

The vessel is being renamed “FSRU Alexandroupoli” and will serve as an offshore storage and import facility.

The “FSRU Alexandroupoli” will be linked to a pipeline system of 28km connecting the floating unit to the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission System (NNGTS).

The ship of 155,000 cubic metres capacity was also recently reflagged to the Greek flag.

The project’s owner, Gastrade, leads a consortium of key players in the wider region’s energy market. The group includes Mrs Elmina Copelouzou, the shipping line GasLog, the Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEFSA), the affiliated Greek company DEPA Commercial, the Hellenic Natural Gas Transmission System Operator and Bulgartransgaz, the Bulgarian natural gas transmission and storage system operator.

Ship for its time

“GasLog believed in the ‘FSRU Alexandroupoli’ endeavor from the very beginning and at a time when energy security in Europe was taken for granted,” said Kostas Karathanos GasLog’s Chief Operating Officer.

“We worked patiently and diligently to reach this stage and we are extremely proud to soon offer the first ever FSRU in Greek waters,” added Karathanos

“Through GasLog’s renowned high standards of safety and reliability, the ‘FSRU Alexandroupolis’ will offer energy diversification and security to the wider region and establish GasLog as an integrated provider of natural gas solutions,” he stated.

GasLog is being backed in the conversion process by the leading European classification society DNV.

Martin Cartwright, Business Director DNV Maritime’s Gas Carriers and FSRUs division, said the project was moving forward as a result of “an exceptional collaborative” effort.

Ninth FSRU

“This will be our record 9th FSRU conversion project as a classification society and we take great pride in being entrusted with supporting this initiative,” explained Cartwright.

“By choosing DNV and our pioneering REGAS (ES) and ASP notations, the consortium demonstrates that they are focused on delivering an installation that meets the most innovative and rigorous standards in the industry,” he stated.

The investors noted that the “FSRU Alexandroupoli” vessel and the project aim to add a new gateway for natural gas in the Greek and wider Balkan region, improving the region's energy mix and diversifying energy sources to enhance security.

Jan 24 (LNGJ) – Russia’s Gazprom said it was meeting Greek company Prometheus Gas S.A. on January 27 to consider unwinding the 50-50 joint venture set up in 1991 between Gazprom Export and Greece’s Copelouzos Group.

   Gazprom said that natural gas deliveries to Prometheus Gas under a contract with Gazprom Export began in October 2016. Then in 2017 the companies signed a long-term contract for the supply of up to 1 billion cubic metres of gas annually to Greece from January 2018 to December 2027. “The three main importers of Russian natural gas in Greece are the state gas company Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEPA), Mytilineos and Prometheus Gas,” added Gazprom.

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.

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.

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.

European LNG import terminal stakeholders in Spain and northwest Europe are part of two competing consortia who have placed final bids for a major stake being sold by the Greek government in natural gas grid operator DESFA.

Greek state-owned natural gas distribution company DEPA has signed a cooperation and participation agreement with local project development company Gastrade for a floating import terminal venture for northern Greece and the Balkans region.