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.

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.

Registro Italiano Navale (RINA), the Italian maritime classification society, and the Italian Asprofos oil and gas design consultancy, have been awarded a contract to help manage the deployment of a floating LNG terminal being developed in eastern Greece to supply the Balkans region.

RINA, based in the port of Genoa, and Greek consultancy Asprofos, have secured a contract to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System (INGS) venture, controlled by the Greek Company Gastrade SA.

Main shareholders in Alexandroupolis FLNG project include Gastrade Chairwoman Elmina Copelouzou, Greek shipping company GasLog, Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEPA) and the Bulgarian gas company Bulgartransgaz.

The project is aimed at increasing security and diversification of gas supplies in the whole region of Southeast Europe.

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

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

Vessel capacity

The GasLog vessel will have a storage capacity of 153,500 cubic metres, a nominal gas send out rate of 625,000 cubic metres per hour and a peak gas send-out rate of up to 944,000 m³ per hour.

A statement noted that the Alexandroupolis project is being financed through the joint venture’s own resources with co-financing from public funds, the National Bank of Greece and shareholder equity.

Public funds will be provided through the Greek Public Investment Programme, partly through national participation and partly through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

“This terminal is a fast-track project, with the FSRU scheduled to be online by the end of 2023,” said the contract winners.

“RINA and Asprofos will make sure that the contractual requirements of the project in terms of expected performance, quality, safety and planning are met,” they added.

“As well as supporting the owner on technical and managerial planning and oversight the two partners will act as an interface, through a multidisciplinary team of experts covering the different needs of the project,” they stated.

RINA view

Leonardo Brunori, Executive Vice President Energy at RINA, said the society was pleased to be involved in a project crucial to the security of European energy supplies.

“Recent events have highlighted the danger of relying on a single country for our energy needs. RINA has a long and proud track record of delivering FSRU and LNG projects globally having worked on over 200 in the last 15 years,” Brunori noted.

“We look forward to working together with Asprofos to deliver this strategically important terminal enabling Europe to further diversify access to energy,” he added.

Dionysios Belekoukias, Managing Director at Asprofos, said his firm was glad to be working with RINA on such an important project.

“We were awarded the contract because of our combined strong technical competencies. Over the last 35 years Asprofos has gained extensive experience in the natural gas sector having been involved in all phases of the majority of the National Natural Gas System of Greece, including the LNG Terminal in Revithoussa,” explained Belekoukias.

“We have also been actively involved in most of the natural gas projects which have been implemented or are under development in Greece such as Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the IGI Poseidon Pipeline, the East Med Pipeline, covering engineering, environmental, permitting, project management, construction management and supervision services,” he added.

Bulgaria said that work had begun on the construction of a new Bulgaria-Serbia Balkan natural gas interconnector with plans for the pipeline to become operational in October 2023 and to enable supplies to come from two Greek LNG import terminals.

These links to the expanding Balkan natural gas market will come from the existing Greek LNG import terminal at Revithoussa operated by the Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA) near Athens, and the proposed new floating LNG project at Alexandroupolis in eastern Greece.

The 170 kilometres (105.6 miles) Bulgaria-Serbia interconnector is separate from the TurkStream link of Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom and will run from the Bulgarian capital Sofia via Dimitrovgrad in Serbia to the city of Nis in southern Serbia, giving the Serbs a non-Russian supply option for the first time.

It will enable Serbia to import natural gas via Greece and Bulgaria from the Southern Gas Corridor bringing gas from Azerbaijan on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to southern Europe and as regasified LNG from the two Greek LNG terminals.

The Bulgaria-Serbia interconnector is supported by the European Union as a Project of Common Interest and has secured a €49.5 million ($56.5M) grant from the EU.

The EU grant comes from the EU Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance as Serbia is not an EU member is simply in the “waiting room”.

The Bulgaria-Serbia pipeline has also secured €25M from the European Investment Bank loan of €25M.

Regasfied LNG

The pipeline will have a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic metres per annum in the direction Bulgaria-Serbia with the possibility also of reverse flow.

There are additional plans for a new interconnector to link the gas grids of Greece and the former Yugoslav nation of North Macedonia.

The gas grid operators of the two countries in September 2021 signed a new gas cooperation agreement, a key step ahead of construction of the new link.

The 123 km pipeline will have an initial capacity of 1.5 Bcm per annum with possible doubling of capacity. A final investment decision is expected before the end of the second quarter of 2022.

The Balkans have been historically dependent on Russian gas imports, though can also receive gas from Azerbaijan on the TAP pipeline and regasified LNG from the Revithoussa terminal.

Greece's Gastrade at the end of January 2022 took the final investment decision for the planned 5.5 Bcm per annum floating LNG import terminal at Alexandroupolis in northern Greece, paving the way for the project to begin operations by the end of 2023.

Gastrade SA, the Greek company developing an FLNG facility, took the FID with joint venture partners, including Bulgaria’s transmission company Bulgartransgaz.

GasLog FSRU

The FSRU will be provided by Greek shipping company GasLog and be connected to the DEFSA system by a 28km pipeline.

Regasified LNG entering the terminal will be able to flow onward to other markets in the region.

Bulgaria is also building a new interconnector with Greece called the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) allowing Azerbaijan's gas on the TAP pipeline to flow northward to Bulgaria and for the regasified Greek LNG to reach Bulgaria and then Serbia.

The IGB pipeline is scheduled to come on stream in July 2022.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has just completed a visit to Serbia to discuss energy issues and the pipelines and LNG supplies with his Serbian counterpart, Ana Brnabić.

“There is great potential to create a single gas trade market involving Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece,” stated Petkov during his visit to the Serbian capiatl Belgrade.

“We need to bring together the volumes of gas consumption in the whole region so that we can negotiate together for lower prices,” Petkov told a joint news conference with Serbian PM Brnabić.

“Our gas connectivity will be a huge priority. The Greek connection is very important for Bulgaria, and through the connection with Serbia you will have the opportunity to receive LNG and Azerbaijani gas,” added Petkov.

Brnabić, who attended the ceremony to mark the start of the pipeline construction, said that the gas pipeline would be ready for operation by October 2023, coinciding with the start-up of the Alexandroupolis FLNG facility.

Petkov told the news conference that Serbia’s future membership of the EU was a huge priority for Bulgaria.

Brnabić thanked Petkov for making the visit, saying that he was the first Bulgarian head of government to come to next-door neighbour Serbia since 2013.

Feb 8 (LNGJ) - Sonatrach, the Algerian oil and gas company and Public Gas Corp. of Greece AE (DEPA) have confirmed the extension of an LNG supply contract relating to the sale and purchase of LNG for delivery to Greece from the North African nation’s Skikda LNG plant. The existing contract was for cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) shipments to Greece's onshore Revithoussa terminal.

   “In addition to the delivery of LNG cargoes to the Greek energy group DEPA, the agreement also provides for a readjustment of the existing contractual terms in accordance with current and future developments in the energy markets,” said Sonatrach.

Gastrade SA, the Greek company developing an offshore LNG import terminal to serve eastern Greece and the Balkan nations, said a positive final investment decision has been taken to proceed with the joint venture.

The European Commission has approved EU funding of the new floating liquefied natural gas import terminal for Greece and the Balkans being developed offshore the port of Alexandroupolis by Greek company Gastrade.

The project using a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) will have an overall delivery capacity of around 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

The subsea and onshore sections of the gas transmission pipeline will transmit LNG from the floating unit to the Greek natural gas network and onwards to third countries in the Balkans.

“The EU State aid will amount to €166.7 million ($200M) as the FLNG project contributes to the security and diversification of energy supplies in Greece and, more generally, in the region of Southeast Europe, without unduly distorting competition,” said the Commission statement.

Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of EU competition policy, stated that the new LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis would improve regional gas supply and infrastructure.

“This will contribute to achievement of the EU's goals in terms of security and diversification of energy supply,” added Vestager.

“The Greek support measure limits the aid to what is necessary to make the project happen and sufficient safeguards will be in place to ensure that potential competition distortions are minimised,” declared the Commissioner

Greece had notified the Commission of its plans to support the construction of the Alexandroupolis terminal, also consisting of offshore installations such as a mooring system and risers as well as subsea and onshore gas transmission pipelines.

“Given its strategic importance for the diversification of natural gas supplies into the Southeast European region, the LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis has been included in the list of European Projects of Common Interest in the energy sector,” said the Commission.

“The terminal is expected to improve security of supply not only for Greece, but also for Bulgaria and for the wider European region, as it will constitute a new potential energy source to feed into the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria,” it added.

The project will be financed by the Greek state using European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), notably funds directly controlled and managed by Greece under the 2014-2020 partnership agreement for the development.

“The beneficiary of the aid is Gastrade SA, a company in which the Greek gas incumbent (DEPA) and the Bulgarian gas Transmission System Operator (Bulgartransgaz EAD) hold a participation,” it added.

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.