LNG

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.

Blue Grid, an Athens-based company leading the development of the LNG and alternative fuels market in southeast Europe, has joined the Molgas group of companies after receiving a significant investment.

Blue Grid, incorporated in 2017, is developing alternative fuels supply chains delivering environmental, economic, and operational benefits to a wide range of customers.

The company’s current activity focuses on supplying LNG as a fuel to three main customer segments in industry, road transport and for marine bunkering.

Blue Grid said its broader scope includes LNG, renewable methane and bioLNG.

Molgas is a leading downstream supplier of LNG in Europe, providing volumes to over 200 industrial customers, 34 LNG fuelling stations, as well as a growing number of marine customers.

The company is active in eight countries in Europe, including Norway through its fully owned subsidiary Gasnor, a company acquired from Shell in 2021.

Molgas, which has its headquarters in Madrid, is owned by funds managed by InfraVia Capital Partners, a Paris-based private equity firm specializing in infrastructure investments.

As a new part of Molgas, Blue Grid said it would focus on accelerating growth in LNG and bioLNG supply in the broader region of southeast Europe and the East Mediterranean.

“The Molgas investment comes at an opportune time, considering the imminent commissioning of the Revithoussa truck-loading terminal, anticipated for the summer of 2022, which will allow reliable and competitive supply of LNG to final customers in the SE European region,” said Blue Grid.

The Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA) is the owner of the Revithoussa LNG terminal.

DESFA is also constructing a small-scale LNG reloading jetty on Revithoussa island and it is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.

Piraeus bunkering

Blue Grid said it aimed to be one of the first physical suppliers of LNG to marine customers in the Port of Piraeus, and to this end, is planning to have an LNG bunkering vessel available in alignment with the commissioning of the jetty.

“We are proud to have Molgas onboard, and view this investment as a vote of confidence in the work that we have been doing in the region over the past years” said Sofoklis Papanikolaou, founder and Chief Executive of Blue Grid.

Fernando Sarasola, the Chief Executive of Molgas, said that southeast European was the next frontier for small-scale LNG and alternative fuels.

“Blue Grid is perfectly positioned to capture this market. We are very excited to be joining our forces and I am confident that together we will be bringing a lot of value to a wide range of customers,” added Sarasola.

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.

Oct 1 (LNGJ) - Russian pipeline natural gas supplier to Western Europe, Gazprom, has celebrated the 25th anniversary of its supply contract with European Union nation Greece, which is currently planning a floating LNG import project offshore the port of Alexandroupolis and has imported cargoes since 2000 to the existing onshore terminal at Revithoussa, west of Athens.

   “Over the past quarter of a century, Gazprom has exported upwards of 54 billion cubic metres of gas to this country and the annual amount of supplies has grown by more than 15 times,” said Gazprom. “All these years, the cooperation has relied on a long-term contract with the Greek operator DEPA. The contract, which was signed in 1988, is still in effect,” it added. “Gas from Russia is delivered via the TurkStream gas pipeline and the national gas transmission system of Bulgaria,” the Russians noted.

Greece’s Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA), whose main shareholders are the gas utilities of Spain and Italy, said it was awarded the contract for operating and maintaining the new onshore liquefied natural gas import terminal under construction in Kuwait and set to start up in 2021.

July 13 (LNGJ) - The 266,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Max carrier, “Umm Slal”, is scheduled to deliver a cargo on July 19 to the UK South Hook terminal in Milford Haven from Ras Laffan in Qatar, according to port authorities. That’s as European LNG values have dropped since last week. The UK’s National Balancing Point natural gas price was last at the equivalent of $1.75 per million British thermal units while the main Continental European benchmark price, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility, was at the equivalent of $1.80 per MMBtu.

   In other European deliveries, the 142,600 cubic metres capacity “LNG River Niger” was scheduled to discharge a shipment on July 19 at the Montoir-de-Bretagne terminal in Western France from the Bonny Island plant in Nigeria. The 140,000 cubic metres capacity “Arctic Voyager” was expected to unload a cargo on July 26 at the Revithoussa terminal in Greece from the Hammerfest plant in Norway. 

Italian natural gas network company Societa Nazionale Metanodotti (SNAM) has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the OLT Offshore LNG Toscana company which operates  the floating regasification terminal off the West Coast of Italy.

European liquefied natural gas terminal stakeholders and network operators in Spain, Italy and Belgium have completed their acquisition of majority control of the Greek gas grid operator DEFSA, sold in a tender by the government privatization agency.

Cheniere Energy said strong global liquefied natural gas demand fundamentals call for supply growth and the Houston-based company said it would be investing along the value chain to boost capacity, feed-gas supplies and LNG marketing opportunities.

The first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the newest US export plant at Corpus Christi in Texas is scheduled to arrive in Greece on December 27 and the European nation will be the 30th supplied by owner Cheniere Energy since it started exports from the Gulf Coast in 2016.