Saipem lays gas pipeline for Greece’s first offshore LNG terminal

Pipelaying activity for Gastrade’s Alexandroupolis LNG terminal, the first offshore LNG project in Greece, has been completed.

On 8 August, oilfield services provider Saipem shared an update on social media stating its pipelay vessel Castoro 10 had completed the activity in the North-East of Greece, off the coast of Alexandroupolis, where it laid a 24-kilometre-long pipeline from shore up to 40-metre water depth, to connect the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission System (NNGTS).

The pipeline was delivered earlier this year by Corinth Pipeworks, a steel pipes segment of Cenergy Holdings, under the contract from September 2022.

The pipelaying activity is part of a larger project, awarded by Gastrade, which encompasses pipeline and manifold, mooring lines and a high-pressure natural gas transfer system, transmitting the gas through a flexible riser to the pipeline end manifold, on the seabed, where the gas transmission pipeline is connected.

• 28 km of pipes delivered for Alexandroupolis LNG terminal
• Greece’s first offshore LNG terminal coming online in 2024 to bolster Europe’s low-carbon energy mix

The Alexandroupolis FSRU project was officially launched on 3 May 2022 and is expected to start operating on 1 January 2024. Its contracted regasification capacity already reached up to 60% of its technical capacity of 5.5 billion cbm per year.

The Alexandroupolis, the former 153,500-cubic-metre LNG Carrier GasLog Chelsea built in 2010, is the first FSRU conversion project under the Greek flag for operation in the Aegean Sea. Owned by GasLog, a partner in the Gastrade consortium, the vessel entered Keppel Shipyard in Singapore in early February 2023 for the regasification equipment to be installed, much of which was assembled in advance, and is scheduled to exit the yard on 8 November.

Svitzer, a global towage provider and part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, has signed a 15-year agreement to set up towage services and support for advanced LNG operations at the new import terminal.

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