United States Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt welcomed Gastrade's adoption of the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the construction of the Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System (INGS), in a tweet on Friday.
The FID is the last and most important milestone, before entering the project’s construction phase.
As Ambassador Pyatt noted, "A big step forward for energy security and climate SE Europe. Congratulations all around."
A big step forward for energy security and climate SE Europe. Congratulations all around. https://t.co/Pdfd1Raayo
— George J. Tsunis (@USAmbassadorGR) January 28, 2022
Gastrade announced the news on Friday, following shareholders' approval that all requirements for the materialization of the project have been secured, and the project is on track in line with its schedule.
The construction and operation of the Alexandroupolis Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal will contribute to the energy security, liquidity and diversification of the country and the entire Southeastern Europe region.
This strengthens the strategic role of Greece and offers alternative sources and routes for the supply of natural gas in the region.
The Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), with a capacity of 153,500 sq.m. of LNG, will be connected to the National Natural Gas Transmission System of Greece with a 28km-long pipeline.
Through this, the gasified LNG will be transmitted to the markets of Greece, Bulgaria and the wider region, from Romania, Serbia and North Macedonia, as all the way to Moldova and Ukraine.
The Terminal is expected to operate by the end of 2023, with the contracted regasification capacity already reaching up to 50% of it’s technical capacity of 5.5 billion sq.m. per year.
Alexandroupolis INGS is included in and financed by the Operational Program of the NSRF "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020" (EPAnEK), with an amount of public spending of 166.7 million Euros.
The Alexandroupolis LNG project also involves the Hellenic Natural Gas Transmission System Operator SA (DESFA), the Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEPA Commercial S.A.), GasLog Cyprus Investments Ltd, and Bulgartransgaz EAD of Bulgaria.
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