October 4, 2023[Offshore Energy]- The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €106 million Greek measure to support the completion of the construction of Gastrade’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Alexandroupolis.
The aid will take the form of a direct grant, and according to Gastrade, the promoter and operator of the offshore terminal, it is aimed at enabling the beneficiary to complete the construction of the terminal as planned by the end of 2023.
Gastrade stated that the Commission found the measure necessary and appropriate, adding that when approving the initial public support, the Commission had already considered that the project was needed to secure gas supply for Greece and the South-Eastern Europe region and that it would contribute to the REPowerEU strategic objective to achieve diversification of energy supplies and end dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
The Commission concluded that the positive effects of the measure outweigh any possible negative effects on competition and trade in the EU, Gastrade noted.
The measure will complement the Greek public support approved by the Commission in June 2021. At the time, the European Commission approved €166.7 million measure for the construction of the terminal.
To remind, in August 2023, oilfield services provider Saipem stated that pipelaying activity for Gastrade’s Alexandroupolis LNG terminal had been completed, and in July 2023, Svitzer, a global towage provider and part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, signed a 15-year agreement to service the terminal.
The pipelaying activity is part of a larger project, awarded by Gastrade, which encompasses pipeline and manifold, mooring lines and a high-pressure natural gas transfer system, transmitting the gas through a flexible riser to the pipeline end manifold, on the seabed, where the gas transmission pipeline is connected.
To note, the Alexandroupolis, the former 153,500-cubic-meter LNG carrier GasLog Chelsea built in 2010, is the first FSRU conversion project under the Greek flag for operation in the Aegean Sea. Its contracted regasification capacity already reached up to 60% of its technical capacity of 5.5 billion cbm per year.
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