LNG

Fortum and Westinghouse Electric Company of the US have signed an accord to explore prerequisites for the development and deployment of new nuclear plants in Finland and Sweden.

Excelerate Energy, the leading US provider of floating LNG import terminals with increased demand from Europe, reported soaring revenues linked to operations in Finland and South America and with an imminent project start in Germany.

Excelerate Energy, the leading US provider of floating LNG import terminals, said its floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), the “Exemplar”, arrived at the port of Inkoo, in Finland to become a Baltic regional supplier of natural gas.

The FSRU was previously loaded with a partial cargo of LNG which would serve as the initial commissioning cargo for the terminal.

The FSRU “Exemplar” has been chartered to Gasgrid Finland Oy for a period of 10 years.

“It will provide flexible, reliable, and secure delivery of regasified LNG to Finland and other Baltic countries,” said Excelerate.

Inkoo port is located on the Southern Coast of Finland and provides an optimal deepwater port at close proximity to the pipelines distributing the gas mainly to industrial end-users in the Baltic region.

The developer had made the move to enable independence from Russian pipeline natural gas.

The FSRU capacity alone is sufficient for the gas needs of both Finland and Estonia. Russian gas supplies through the Imatra entry point into Finland have been stopped since May 2022.

Finland already has two onshore LNG terminals at Pori and Tornio. They have been in operation since 2016 and 2018 respectively.

Infrastructure

“The arrival of the FSRU ‘Exemplar’ at the port of Inkoo represents an important milestone for Finland as it prepares to enhance its energy security and bring essential energy infrastructure to the region,” said Steven Kobos, President and Chief Executive of Excelerate.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved, and we are proud to have partnered with Gasgrid on this opportunity,” added Kobos.

In addition to providing regasification services under the time charter with Gasgrid, Excelerate said that through its recently formed Finnish gas marketing subsidiary, Excelerate Finland Gas Marketing, the US firm has executed an agreement for the sale of commissioning volumes and regasification capacity rights during the commissioning phase.

“Through this agreement, Excelerate Finland will be able to provide natural gas to downstream customers in Finland and other Baltic countries,” explained the Houston-based company.

Excelerate explained that the FSRU “Exemplar” departed drydock in Spain on December 6 where it underwent customer-requested winterization upgrades.

“The vessel subsequently procured its cargo from Excelerate’s global LNG portfolio via a ship-to-ship transfer with the FSRU ‘Excelsior’ near Gibraltar,” said the company.

“The ‘Excelsior’ recently completed its 10-year service in Israel and will go on charter to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2023,” it added.

The FSRU “Exemplar” is 291 metres long and 43 meters wide. It has a storage capacity of 150,900 cubic metres of LNG and can provide more than 5 billion cubic metres per annum of regasification capacity.

LNG import terminal developer and leading Finnish power company Fortum and subsidiary Uniper, Germany’s biggest Russian pipeline gas importer, and the German Government have agreed a comprehensive stabilisation package to provide financial relief to the Düsseldorf-based utility.

Fortum, the Finnish energy and power company with European Union-wide operations and with plans to give Finland its first floating LNG import terminal, is the majority shareholder in the troubled German utility Uniper but has refused to put any more cash into the Duesseldorf-based company.

May 20 (LNGJ) - Excelerate Energy, the US floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) specialist, has signed a 10-year contract in Helsinki to deploy the 150,900 cubic metres capacity FSRU “Exemplar” to supply LNG to Finland, Estonia and the Baltic Sea region.

   Excelerate President and Chief Executive Steven Kobos, Gasgrid Finland CEO Olli Sipilä and Gasgrid Finland Chairman Kai-Petteri Purhonen signed the contract at the Government Palace in Helsinki in a ceremony also attended by Finnish Minister of Finance Annika Saarikko and US Ambassador to Finland Douglas Hickey. “Flexible access to LNG is a critical component of European energy security,” said Kobos. “We are honored to collaborate with Gasgrid Finland to deliver essential energy infrastructure that will benefit Finland and more broadly the Baltic Sea region,” added the Excelerate CEO.

US natural gas supply flows to meet the winter season peak demand in New England has been helped by the Northeast Gateway deepwater LNG import facility using floating storage and regasification units in Massachusetts Bay offshore Boston.

The Northeast Gateway is owned and operated by Excelerate Energy, the US specialist in floating LNG import projects.

In addition to the New England facility, Excelerate has established more than a dozen LNG import facilities in nations in South America, the Middle East and Asia.

Excelerate said its Northeast Gateway reached a peak send-out flow rate of more than 800,000 million cubic metres per day of LNG on February 1, 2019, during the recent freezing weather in the region.

The company said this was a first for the terminal and was completed by two of Excelerate’s FSRUs, the “Exemplar” and the “Express”, discharging in parallel through the company’s proprietary offshore buoys.

Excelerate explained that during the coldest days of the year, demand for natural gas from residential customers rises in New England.

Historically, during these times, as natural gas deliverability becomes constrained in natural gas pipelines, power generators have to burn fuels such as oil.

“This year, LNG imports from the Northeast Gateway facility have complimented the system by suppling energy during this peak demand, allowing generators to continue burning natural gas,” stated Excelerate.

At a flow rate of 800,000 million British thermal units per day, this represents approximately the average gas demand of power generators in the region during the recent January-February winter cold periods.

“Excelerate’s Northeast Gateway has helped New England prepare for the winter months by supplying natural gas to meet the increased energy demand of the region,” said Excelerate’s Managing Director Steven Kobos.

“Deliveries of LNG directly into the Algonquin pipeline system helps to bring much-needed market stability and fuel security to the Northeast,” added Kobos.

The Northeast Gateway was first set up and commissioned more than 10 year ago about 20 kilometres offshore Boston.

The terminal consists of a dual submerged turret-loading buoy system which allows for the connection of the FSRUs that have been specifically designed to meet the conditions of the North Atlantic.

FSRUs act, in all aspects, like a land-based terminal and have the onboard capability to vaporize LNG and deliver natural gas directly into the existing subsea HubLine pipeline operated by Enbridge Inc.’s Algonquin Gas Transmission.

Excelerate has established more than a dozen LNG import facilities for FSRUs around the world and the most recent was in the Asian nation of Bangladesh in 2018.

The Moheshkhali Island venture was co-developed by Excelerate, national energy company PetroBangla and the International Finance Corporation, part of World Bank Group.

The deployment of Excelerate's vessel, the “Excellence”, enabled Bangladesh to have the means to import around 3.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

May 25 (LNGJ) - The 155,000 cubic metres capacity “British Ruby”, operated by BP Shipping, is unloading a Qatargas cargo on May 25 at the Bahia Blanca import facility in Argentina in the form of the FSRU “Exemplar”, according to shipping data. The 145,700 cubic metres capacity “LNG Benue” is unloading a shipment on May 26 at the Brazilian Guanabara Bay FSRU, near Rio de Janeiro. The 266,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Max vessel “Al Bahiya” is scheduled to unload a cargo on May 30 at the Rotterdam Gate import terminal from Ras Laffan in Qatar.