Greece has begun work on the Alexandroupolis FSRU, a floating LNG storage and gasification station which will anchor 18 km southwest of the port of Alexandroupolis, 10 km from the coast of Makri, within Greek territorial waters
The project is budgeted at €364M (US$386M) and the unit – scheduled to come online at the end of 2023 – is capable of storing 153,500 m3 of LNG and supplying the Greek national gas transmission system with approximately 5.5 bcm of fuel per year with a send-out capacity of 23 mcm per day. The offshore station at Alexandroupolis will be connected to the transmission system through a 28-km submarine and overland pipeline.
Shipowner GasLog, which has an interest in the project developer Gastrade, will convert one of its LNG carriers into an FSRU for the project. Though Gastrade took FID on the project a few days before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, the FSRU nevertheless has strategic importance, a fact noted constantly at the launch, constituting a new energy gateway and diversifying energy sources and routes to Greece and the wider Balkans.
In the context of the war, the development of a new terminal serving Greece, the Balkans and southeastern Europe fits the European Union’s effort to break free of its dependence on Russian energy.
The Greek Prime Minister’s office said the FSRU, combined with ongoing projects – the TAP pipeline, the IGB pipeline and the Greece-northern Macedonia interconnector pipeline – would help make Greece an important energy hub.
“The recent blackmail by Moscow concerning natural gas renders this co-operation not just necessary but also urgent,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Western sanctions in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion caused the value of the rouble to fall which in turn prompted Russia to demand payments in roubles for supplying natural gas. Last week Moscow halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failure to pay in roubles.
Mr Mitsotakis added that the Alexandroupolis terminal “helps the economies of all our countries, a project with a significant geopolitical footprint, a project that, due to the turn of events and international circumstances as well as the violent Russian invasion of Ukraine, acquires a special geopolitical significance in this world which is changing at such a rapid pace.”
There are plans to develop a second station off Alexandroupolis and a floating unit off Corinth.
