January 20, 2022 [YLE News] – Finland’s newly-arrived floating liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal on the southern coast is now ready to accept gas deliveries, according to Gasgrid Finland.

Like other European countries, Finland was faced with LNG shortages due to the repercussions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

To replenish those shortfalls, the Nordic country decided to lease a floating LNG terminal from a US company, which arrived in the southern port of Inkoo at the end of last year.

Liquid gas brought in by tankers is to be re-vaporised into gas form, and then fed into the Finnish network for distribution to replace the fossil gas that previously came from Russia.

Gasgrid’s SVP of transmission business, Esa Hallivuori said in a press release issued on Monday that the floating terminal was now fully functional and had received all required permits to begin commercial operations.

“Everything has now been finalised and tested. This means that the customers of our terminal can begin to distribute gas to meet the needs of industry, energy production and households not just in Finland but also in the Baltic states,” Hallivuori said in the statement.

“Our LNG floating terminal has already generated plenty of interest and enquiries from various parties. We believe that there is a real need for the energy provided by our terminal both now and going forward. The LNG floating terminal can provide a huge amount of energy also for heat and power production when needed,” he continued.

The 291-metre long Exemplar is able to hold around 68,000 tonnes of LNG, equating to more than one gigawatt-hour of energy, according to Gasgrid, which added that the terminal has an annual regasification capacity of 40 terawatt-hours, “which far exceeds Finland’s annual need for natural gas.”

The vessel will also be able to provide LNG to the Baltic states and potentially Poland, via the Balticconnector pipeline.

Gasgrid said that LNG will be sourced from the international market, noting that no Russian gas would be used at the terminal and that the arrangement will enable Finland “to permanently phase out its dependency on Russian gas.”

The facility is operated by Gasgrid Finland’s subsidiary Gasgrid Floating LNG Terminal Finland.

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