Excelerate Energy and Gasgrid Finland sign FSRU charter agreement
Published by Abi Larkin,
Editorial Assistant
LNG Industry,
Excelerate Energy, Inc. (Excelerate) and a subsidiary of Gasgrid Finland Oy (Gasgrid Finland) have signed a 10-year contract in Helsinki, Finland, to charter a FSRU that will provide flexible, reliable, and secure LNG to Finland, Estonia, and the Baltic Sea Region.
Excelerate President and CEO Steven Kobos, Gasgrid Finland CEO Olli Sipilä, and Gasgrid Finland Chairman of the Board Kai-Petteri Purhonen signed the contract at the government palace in Helsinki in a ceremony also attended by Minister of Finance Annika Saarikko, Director-General for Energy Riku Huttunen, and US Ambassador to Finland Douglas Hickey.
Under the time charter party agreement, Excelerate will deploy its FSRU Exemplar to provide regasification services in Southern Finland. The Exemplar has storage capacity of 150 900 m3 of LNG and can provide more than 5 billion m3/y of regasification capacity.
Per the cooperation agreement signed on 4 May by Gasgrid Finland and Estonia’s gas transmission operator Elering AS, the FSRU may be located in an Estonian port this winter if the port structures are not yet completed in Finland. The governments of Finland and Estonia published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 29 April agreeing to jointly lease an FSRU.
“Flexible access to LNG is a critical component of European energy security,” said Steven Kobos, President and Chief Executive Office of Excelerate. “We are honoured to collaborate with Gasgrid Finland to deliver essential energy infrastructure that will benefit Finland and more broadly the Baltic Sea region. As a leader in flexible LNG solutions, Excelerate is proud to support the goals of the US-EU Task Force for Energy Security, which include diversifying LNG supplies in alignment with climate objectives.”
Olli Sipilä, CEO of Gasgrid, said: “We are glad that we were able to sign the agreement on such a fast schedule. It required the committed contribution of dozens of top professionals, for which I am very grateful. The project requires seamless cooperation between different actors as well in the future, and the project is progressing as planned. Leasing an LNG terminal vessel is extremely important, as it ensures security of supply for gas supplies in both Finland and Estonia. On the other hand, we see that there is a need for the terminal in the wider Baltic Sea region and it has been received with interest.”
Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/23052022/excelerate-energy-and-gasgrid-finland-sign-fsru-charter-agreement/
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