The floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal chartered by Finland to replace Russian gas will arrive with a full cargo in the coming days, with commercial operations starting in January, the head of operator Gasgrid told Reuters.
Finland has agreed a 10-year charter for the Exemplar floating storage and regasification (FSRU) vessel that will serve both its domestic and the Baltic market, providing additional resources as Europe grapples with an energy crisis.
“The ship will come (to Finland) and will be commissioned in the coming days, in December,” Olli Sipila, the head of gas system operator Gasgrid, said in an interview.
A subsidiary of Gasgrid will operate the terminal at Inkoo port.
The FSRU will arrive in Finland fully loaded but the terminal will remain in implementation mode until the start of commercial operations on Jan. 15, Sipila said.
However, he did not specify whether there would be additional LNG deliveries ahead of commercial operations.
The FSRU Exemplar is expected to arrive in Gibraltar on Dec. 9, having left the El Ferrol port in Spain where it had been prepared for service, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data showed.
Gasgrid said it started accepting first quarter 2023 capacity reservations for the Inkoo terminal on Dec. 5, with a total of seven slots available until the end of March.
The Exemplar will have a daily maximum output capacity of 140 gigawatt hours (GWh), with Finland able to receive up to 110 GWh, while up to 80 GWh could go to Estonia via the BalticConnector pipeline, Sipila said.
The vessel can temporarily store a maximum of 1,000 GWh in its tanks, he added.
The start of operations is welcome news for Finland, which risks blackouts this winter after Russia stopped all exports of gas and power over disputes in the wake of the war in Ukraine and amid the delayed start-up of a new nuclear power reactor.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, writing by Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Toby Chopra and Susan Fenton)
