Nature groups go to court in Greece over a strategic gas terminal backed by the European Union

Five Greek and international environmental campaign agencies have launched legal action against a major natural gas project in the Mediterranean country.

A joint legal action has been initiated by five environmental campaign agencies, both Greek and international, against a large-scale natural gas project that has received support from the European Union.

The initiative, which is being hailed as a regional alternative to Russian energy, is now facing opposition from Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The groups have officially filed a lawsuit at Greece's highest administrative court, the Council of State, challenging the proposal for an offshore natural gas storage and conversion plant located near the northeastern port of Alexandroupolis.

The joint statement released by the organizations confirms that the legal action was initiated on Tuesday.

The Alexandroupolis FSRU was delivered on Monday to GasLog, one of the shareholders of the floating terminal that is due to come into operation towards the end of this year.

The Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System (INGS) project, off the coast of the port of Alexandroupolis in the Thracian Sea near the border with Turkey, in northern Greece, will link the FSRU at sea to the gas grid on the mainland, delivering gas to the local market and to neighbouring export destinations.

The project is led by Gastrade, a special purpose company set up to develop the facility, which is participated by Greek gas grid operator DESFA, gas supplier Depa Commercial, Bulgaria’s grid operator BulgarTransGaz, GasLog and Elmina Copelouzou, Gastrade’s founding shareholder.

All parties have a 20% stake each in the venture.

The FSRU has a regasification capacity of 5.5 billion cubic metres per annum, and can store 153,500 cubic metres of LNG.