October 6 , 2022 [LNG Prime] – Finnish state-owned natural gas transmission system operator, Gasgrid, is expecting the first commissioning cargo to arrive at Excelerate Energy’s FSRU in Inkoo or Estonia’s Paldiski in mid-December this year.
Excelerate’s 150,900-cbm Exemplar will serve Finland, Estonia, and other Baltic states under a 10-year charter deal Gasgrid signed with the US LNG firm in May.
The FSRU, which can supply more than 5 billion cubic meters per year of regasification capacity, arrived at Navantia’s yard in El Ferrol, Spain, from Argentina on September 22, according to its AIS data provided by VesselValue.
Excelerate previously said that Exemplar would go to a dry dock in Spain for maintenance and winterization before sailing on to the Baltic Sea to provide LNG regasification services to both Finland and Estonia.
First cargo
Gasgrid and Fortum are working on the LNG import facility in the port of Inkoo, while Estonia’s Elering, Alexela, and Infortar are building the LNG terminal in Paldiski.
Finland has still not decided whether the FSRU would first dock in Inkoo or Paldiski.
According to an update by Gasgrid issued last week, the firm currently estimates that the commissioning cargo of about 1 TWh would be delivered to the FSRU in mid-December.
During the commissioning process the commissioning cargo would be regasified into the transmission system, either Finnish or Estonian, the company said.
The resulting gas would be sold to national security of supply organizations (SoS) and market participants, and Gasgrid has invited interested partied in buying gas from the commissioning cargo to submit bids no later than October 17.
Commercial operations to start in January 2023
Floating LNG Terminal Finland (FLTF), a unit of Gasgrid, still believes that commercial operations can start in January 2023, subject to a successful completion and start-up of the FSRU.
Gasgrid’s unit plans to offer two terminal slots of about 1 TWh each in January and after that 2-3 slots per month.
The maximum regasification rate of the terminal into the transmission system is 140 GWh/d and the minimum 60 GWh/d.
In order to plan for the terminal usage, Gasgrid’s unit is also inviting potential terminal users to indicate their capacity requirements for the first quarter and up to the third quarter of 2023, according to a separate statement.
Depending on customer interest, FLTF may apply the “joint use concept” during these three quarters of 2023.
“The joint use concept would guarantee terminal users stable gas availability by allowing users to lend and borrow gas or LNG to and from each other,” it said.
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