The European Commission (EC) has approved the acquisition of joint control of Gastrade, the Greek company developing the floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal near Alexandroupoli in northern Greece, by Greek natural gas transmission system operator DESFA, Greek gas company DEPA Trade, Cypriot GasLog and Bulgarian natural gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz.
The statement from the EC said that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the presence of competing gas import infrastructures and the Greek regulations in place, including those concerning the tariffs to be charged by LNG terminals and those laying down access obligations to LNG terminals and to DESFA’s transmission system.
The Alexandroupoli LNG project, for which Gastrade has obtained a license in 2011, envisages the construction of LNG storage facility with the capacity of 170,000 cubic meters, which could supply 17 million cubic meters of gas per day to Greek gas network. With the construction of gas interconnection between Greece and Bulgaria, the investors are considering options to supply natural gas to the entire Balkan region.
The FSRU will be located 17.6 kilometers southwest of the port of Alexandroupoli and will have gas supply capacity that will exceed 5.5 billion cubic meters per year. The floating unit will be connected to Greek gas transmission system via 28 kilometers long pipeline, through which the regasified LNG will be transmitted to the markets of Greece, Bulgaria and the wider region, from Romania, Serbia and North Macedonia to Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine.
The project supports, complements and works in harmony with, the other existing or planned key gas infrastructure projects in the region such as the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector (IGB), TAP, the Bulgaria-Serbia interconnector, the Greece- North Macedonia interconnector, the Kavala underground gas storage and the Revythoussa LNG terminal.
The consortium for the construction of the terminal should comprise of Gastrade, controlled by Copelouzos Group, (20 %), Gaslog (20 %), Greek Public Gas Corporation DEPA (20 %), now through DEPA Trade, Greek natural gas transmission system operator DESFA (20 %) and Bulgarian Energy Holding BEH through Bulgartransgaz (20 %).
