Greece’s first floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) has arrived in Alexandroupolis, where it will soon start serving Gastrade’s LNG import project.
According to its AIS data, the 153,600-cbm Alexandroupolis was on Sunday anchored offshore the Greek port of Alexandroupolis.
Greece’s Gastrade previously said that the FSRU would arrive in the port on December 17 from Singapore.
Last month, the vessel left Seatrium’s yard in Singapore following the completion of the conversion work at the yard.
Gastrade’s shareholder and Greek LNG shipping firm GasLog told Keppel Offshore & Marine, now Seatrium, in February last year to proceed with the conversion of the 2010-built, GasLog Chelsea, to an FSRU.
SOFIA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Bulgaria has reached an agreement in principle to double its reserved capacity at a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility to be built off the northern Greek port of Alexandroupolis, the interim energy minister said on Monday.
Rossen Hristov told reporters that raising the reserved capacity to 1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year at the LNG terminal, expected to become operational at the end of 2023, will help the Balkan country ensure diversified and stable gas supplies.
The interim government, which has come under fire at home for seeking to renew gas supplies from Russia’s Gazprom , has said it plans to open tenders for mid to long-term gas deliveries and wanted to import more LNG gas through Greece.
The Alexandroupolis terminal is due to be built by a consortium of Greece’s Copelouzos family, Greek gas companies DEPA and DESFA, Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz and Cyprus’s Gaslog.
The European Commission (EC) will provide €166.7M (US$198M) for the construction of a new LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis, Greece
Funding for the project, which is expected to improve security of supply for Greece and the wider southeastern European region, was approved under the EU’s state aid rules.
Commenting on the EC’s decision, executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager said “The new LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis will improve gas supply and infrastructure not only in Greece, but in the whole southeastern European region. This will contribute to achieving the EU’s goals in terms of security and diversification of energy supply. 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.”
The Greek State will finance the project using European Structural and Investment Funds and support will take the form of a direct grant amounting to €166.7M (US$198M).
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece and Bulgaria sought to reduce their reliance on Russian gas with the signing Monday of an agreement that will allow Bulgaria to participate in a planned liquefied natural gas terminal in northeastern Greece.
The project, which has strong support from the United States, is aimed at boosting energy diversification in southeastern Europe, a region largely reliant on Russian natural gas.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his Bulgarian counterpart, Boiko Borisov, were present for the signing of the agreement under which Bulgaria’s state-controlled Bulgartransgaz will acquire a 20% stake in the Greek company, Gastrade, that is developing the LNG terminal outside the Greek city of Alexandroupolis.
“This large investment will help our ultimate goal of turning our easternmost port into a global energy hub,” Mitsotakis said.
SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian state-owned gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz said on Wednesday that it has resumed natural gas transmission to Greece after fixing a ruptured pipeline.
All orders for Wednesday will be completed in full, Bulgartransgaz said in a statement.
Natural gas transmission to Greece was halted on Monday due to a rupture in the pipeline some 200 metres upstream the valve at the Kulata/Sidirokastron exit.
The Council of Ministers of the Bulgarian Government approved the participation of BULGARTRANSGAZ EAD by a percentage of 20% in the share capital of GASTRADE S.A. The terms of the agreement were signed on 8th of January by the Founding Shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of GASTRADE, Ms. Elmina Copelouzou and the Executive Director of BULGARTRANSGAZ, Mr. Vladimir Malinov, in the presence of the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria, Ms. Temenuzhka Petkova.
GASTRADE is developing the LNG Terminal in Northern Greece off the shore of Alexandroupolis.
The Terminal comprises a floating LNG storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and a 28 km pipeline system. The LNG storage capacity of the FSRU will be up to 170,000 cubic metres and the maximum daily regasification capacity 22.7 million c.m. The FSRU will be moored 10 km offshore the city of Alexandroupolis and will be connected to the National Natural Gas Transmission System via a 28 km pipeline (24 km subsea pipeline and 4 km onshore pipeline).
SOFIA (Reuters) - Russia has started European gas deliveries through the new TurkStream pipeline to Turkey, Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz said on Sunday, as Moscow looks to reduce shipments via Ukraine.
Russia is building TurkStream and doubling the capacity of NordStream across the Baltic Sea to Germany as part of plans to bypass Ukraine in its gas deliveries to Europe.
“Russian gas deliveries not only for us but also for Greece and North Macedonia are being carried through the new entry point (at our Turkish border),” Bulgartransgaz CEO Vladimir Malinov told Bulgarian national radio BNR.
Russian gas producer Gazprom started shipping about 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Bulgaria via TurkStream on January 1, replacing a route that formerly passed through Ukraine and Romania.
Less than a year after it was upgraded with a third tank, the gas terminal on the island of Revythousa is confirming its strategic role as a feeder of the broader Balkan market, as on August 31 it will receive the first liquefied natural gas load destined for Bulgaria that is procured directly by a Bulgarian company.
Energico, owned by a former official of gas grid operator Bulgartransgaz, will be the first Bulgarian company to make a direct LNG procurement through Revythousa to cover Bulgaria’s needs, as the islet off the Attica coast is the only facility that allows for the diversification of natural gas sources in Greece’s northern neighbor, which is almost 100 percent dependent on Russian gas.
That option will become even easier when the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria pipeline starts operating, along with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), in 2020.
Gas companies in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Hungary have agreed to unite their gas networks to increase the supply security in South-Eastern Europe, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said yesterday, Reuters and BTA reported.
State-owned Transgaz (Romania), Bulgartransgaz (Bulgaria), DESFA (Greece), FGSZ (Hungary) and ICGB, the company responsible for the development, construction and operation of the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector, signed a memorandum yesterday in Bucharest.
It will be the basis for building the necessary gas pipeline system to transport natural gas to transit countries and the European market, from Greece through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary and vice versa, reads a press release of the Bulgarian Energy Ministry.
The Government of Bulgaria has decided to participate in the Alexandroupolis floating LNG terminal project in Northern Greece. Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), an entity belonging to the Ministry of Energy of Bulgaria and Gastrade, promoter of the LNG terminal project, have signed a terms of reference (TOR) for the creation of a joint working team that will study and propose to the Council of Ministers of the Government of Bulgaria the optimum way to implement Bulgaria’s participation in the project. The ΤOR includes the composition of the joint team, the scope and the boundaries of its work as well as the timeframe for the submission of its proposal to the Government of Bulgaria.
The governments of Greece and Bulgaria seem to be forging stronger ties with Azerbaijan and its national gas champion, SOCAR, through mid and long term capabilities for its expansion in Southeast Europe.
More specifically, the finalization of the privatization of Greece's national transmission network company (DESFA) seems to be heading towards its final stages - an issue that has been ongoing since late 2013. The whole process, which included SOCAR buying 66% of shares for €400 million, was obstructed by the European Commissions's DG Competition, citing the provisions of the Third Energy Package. Nevertheless, during the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' last visit to Baku, Azeri authorities publicly claimed that assurances of the strictest provisions had been submitted to Brussels and it is a matter of a few weeks before DESFA is formally a part of the Azeri company.
It is of importance to note that the acquisition of the Greek corporation provides access to the Azeris both in interconnections with Bulgaria and IGB in particular, as well as to the domestic LNG terminal in Revythousa, coupled with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is scheduled to traverse Greece en route to Albania and Italy by late 2019.
Concurrently, Bulgaria recently signed two agreements with Azerbaijan that stipulate supplies by the latter via Greece from 2018 onwards. The Memorandums of Cooperation were signed by Bulgartransgaz and SOCAR and also include the upgrade of the country's underground gas storage facility in the vicinity of Chiren. The whole plan rests on the assurances that by 2016 the IGB pipeline will connect and be functional with reverse flow capacity Greece and Bulgaria, along with a new and similar infrastructure between Bulgaria and Turkey. In the meantime similar projects will connect Bulgaria with Romania and Serbia, thus enabling the Azeris to expand their customer base throughout most of the Balkans. Greek commercial gas company, DEPA, which is still under state control, also envisages the Aegean-Baltic interconnection route that will ship Azeri gas up to Poland by 2020 onwards. DEPA already has signed an agreement for a future imports of 1 bcm per year from SOCAR and is in the process to increase that amount, most likely for deliveries that will take place after TAP is established.
An important aspect to all the above that is closely related to the Athens-Sofia gas nexus, is the advance of the floating storage & regasification unit, currently being designed offshore Alexandroupoli by the Greek Copelouzos Group, aiming to supply with LNG the tri-border region of the aforementioned countries, plus Turkey and add to the boosting of energy security for the whole region. The budget is estimated at €350 million and it has already received the status of a Project of Common Interest by the EU, citing its strategic nature in that respect.
The company formed for that purpose is named GasTrade and aims to have by 2018 a 170,000cubic metre storage capacity of LNG that will be connected with DESFA's national system through a 17km underwater pipeline. Presently, talks are underway with prospective investors, thus pushing along the process to attract potential clients in a consumer base stretching from Greece to Hungary.
The owners of the company are also confident that the project may take a substantial amount of subsidies directly from the EU's structural funds since it is already a candidate for the allocation of EU capital to such works.
Lastly, it should be noted that the owners of the company own another entity named Prometheus Gas that has for years teamed with Gazprom and supplies a substantial amount of the gas flow yearly to Greece via the already established pipeline running from Bulgaria. It receives the necessary amounts from the gas network transiting Ukraine.
