Greece’s Alexandroupolis FSRU Project Expected to Be Complete in 2024
The pipeline for Greece’s first offshore LNG terminal project has been installed in Alexandroupolis, northeast Greece.
The oilfield service provider Saipem announced that its pipelay vessel Castoro has completed laying a 24-kilometer-long pipeline from shore up to 40-meter water depth in Alexandroupolis to connect the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission System (NNGTS).
The project was conducted in cooperation between Saipem, GASTRADE S.A., and Corinth Pipeworks which delivered the pipeline according to a contract signed in September 2022
The Greek utility company GASTRADE S.A. oversaw the development of the FSRU project in the reception, temporary storage, and regasification of LNG in addition to a spread mooring system, a system of an HP subsea, and onshore gas transmission pipelines.
The construction and operation of the pipeline will strengthen Greece’s strategic role, as an energy hub in the wider region of Southeastern Europe. It offers alternative natural gas sources and routes that Europe badly needs to cover up for the suspension of the Russian gas and oil supply since the start of the Ukrainian war.
The Alexandroupolis FSRU project was launched in May 2022 and is expected to begin operating on 1 January 2024, following the commission tests. Its contracted regasification capacity reached up to 60% of its technical capacity of 5.5 bcm/d. A major portion of the gas provided by the FSRU will be exported to Bulgaria and Romania.
