Excelerate FSRU anchors in Finland

FSRU Exemplar has arrived in the port of Inkoo to begin a10-year charter providing regasified LNG to Finland and other Baltic countries. [Photo: Excelerate Energy]

As European nations ramp up their efforts to end their dependence on Russian energy supplies, Finnish state-owned natural gas transmission company Gasgrid Finland reports that the floating storage and regasification unit Exemplar, successfully anchored in the deep water port of Inkoo today.

Gasgrid says the floating LNG terminal “turned out to be the fastest and most effective solution to phase out dependency on Russian gas in Finland and to ensure the continuity of gas supplies in Finland in different scenarios far into the future.”

The 150,900 cubic meter LNG capacity FSRU is on charter from Excelerate Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EE), headquartered in the Woodlands, Texas. It arrived in Inkoo loaded with a partial cargo of LNG that which will serve as the initial commissioning cargo for the terminal. Chartered to Gasgrid for a period of ten years, it will provide flexible, reliable, and secure delivery of regasified LNG to Finland and other Baltic countries.

“The arrival of the FSRU Exemplar at the port of Inkoo represents an important milestone for Finland as it prepares to enhance its energy security and bring essential energy infrastructure to the region,” said Steven Kobos, president and CEO of Excelerate. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved, and we are proud to have partnered with Gasgrid on this opportunity.”

In addition to providing regasification services under the time charter with Gasgrid, Excelerate, through its recently formed Finnish gas marketing subsidiary, Excelerate Finland Gas Marketing Oy, has executed an agreement for the sale of commissioning volumes and regasification capacity rights during the commissioning phase. Through this agreement, Excelerate Finland will be able to provide natural gas to downstream customers in Finland and other Baltic countries.

The FSRU Exemplar departed dry dock in Spain on December 6 after completing customer-requested winterization upgrades. The vessel subsequently procured its cargo from Excelerate’s global LNG portfolio via a ship-to-ship transfer with the FSRU Excelsior near Gibraltar. The Excelsior recently completed its 10-year service in Israel and will go on charter to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2023.

The FSRU Exemplar is 291 meters long and 43 meters wide. Its storage capacity of 150,900 cubic meters of LNG can provide more than 5 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) of regasification capacity.

The structural strength and tensile strength of Exemplar’s pier and mooring structures are many times those used for normal shipping operations. In addition, a 2.2-kilometer connecting gas pipeline to the gas transmission network has been built under Gasgrid’s leadership.

”We started the building work required by the LNG floating terminal in August 2022. The contract work included the pier and mooring structures and systems required by the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and construction of the gas pipeline,” says Esa Hallivuori, head of the lng floating terminal project at Gasgrid Finland. “Following successful berthing, we will make a start on carrying out various measures and testing related to the actual use of the liquefied natural gas aboard the vessel and the integration of the LNG floating terminal to Gasgrid’s gas network. Working together means we have kept both to plan and the tight timetable.”