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 cooperation agreement has been signed between key natural gas infrastructure owners from Greece, the Balkans and Central Europe including Gastrade, developer of the Alexandroupolis floating LNG import terminal for Greece and the Balkans.

Svitzer, a subsidiary of the Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk and a leading provider of towage, has signed a 15-year agreement to service Gastrade’s Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System LNG terminal offshore the northeast coast of Greece.

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.

The natural gas transmission network of Bulgaria has completed its share participation transaction in the Alexandroupolis floating LNG import terminal proposed to supply the Balkans region with regasified volumes from offshore northeast Greece.

Gastrade SA, the Greek company developing an offshore LNG import terminal to serve Balkan nations, has signed an agreement for the acquisition of 20 percent of its share capital by Greece’s natural gas grid operator DESFA.

GasLog Ltd, the LNG carrier fleet owner with 36 ships split with its US affiliate GasLog Partners, posted a first-quarter 2020 loss as LNG demand faced multiple headwinds.

March 26 (LNGJ) - Greek LNG developer Gastrade said the binding phase of a market test for reservation of capacity at the floating LNG terminal proposed for offshore  Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece was successfully completed. “With an aggregate long-term profile of binding offers for up to 15 years, reaching 2.6 billion cubic metres per year, Greek and international natural gas companies, as well as end-consumers, confirmed their interest in the reservation of regasification capacity at the FSRU terminal,” said Gastrade.

   LNG delivered to the terminal will be regasified and transmitted to the markets of Greece and the region via the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission System. Konstantinos Spyropoulos, Managing Director of Gastrade, said the process was a critical step towards “the enhancement of energy diversification and security of supply in Greece, the Balkans and the wider southeast European area”. 

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.

Greek utility Gastrade said 20 companies submitted expressions of interest in the first phase of its market test for the reservation of regasification capacity at the floating storage and regasification unit planned for the port of Alexandroupolis in northeast Greece.