March 28 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria expects to take delivery of ten tankers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year via the Alexandroupolis floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) import terminal in the Aegean Sea offshore Greece, once the facility goes live in 2024, Bulgarian caretaker energy minister Rossen Hristov said.
The LNG terminal, which has been under construction since last summer, is on track to be commissioned in early 2024, shareholder and state-owned gas grid operator Bulgartransgaz said in a statement last week. Bulgartransgaz owns a 20% stake in the project company building the terminal.
"The new liquefied gas storage and regasification capacity is also important for LNG producers and will prevent LNG infrastructure congestions and the lack of slots in the region, which we witnessed in 2022," Bulgartransgaz CEO Vladimir Malinov said after visiting the facility together with the energy minister.
The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal has a regasification capacity of 5.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year. Bulgaria, which uses some 3 bcm of natural gas per year, has booked an annual storage capacity of 1 bcm at the terminal. The facility is being developed by project company Gastrade, which has four other shareholders with stakes of 20% each - Greek gas transmission operator DESFA, Gaslog Cyprus Investment, Greek gas supplier DEPA Commercial and Elmina Copelouzos of the Copelouzos Group.
In addition to the FSRU, there will be a system of subsea and onshore gas pipelines, through which natural gas will be delivered to the Greek transmission system and on to end users from the region, with plans to create a vertical gas corridor reaching Hungary.
In November 2022, public gas supplier Bulgargaz launched a tender to select a long-term supplier of LNG via the Alexandroupolis terminal for the period 2024-2034.