FSRU Exemplar heads to Baltic Sea to provide Estonia and Finland with LNG

Floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Exemplar belonging to the US company Excelerate Energy has headed towards the Baltic Sea where it will provide regasification services to Estonia, Finland, and other Baltic countries, reports LNGPrime.

The FSRU has completed the three-month contract in Argentina, supplying the country’s Bahia Blanca LNG terminal with LNG for the 2022 winter season. First, FSRU Exemplar will sail to Spain for maintenance and winterisation. It is expected that it will head on to the Baltic Sea by December.

Finland’s operator Gasgrid signed a deal with the US LNG firm. According to the contract, FSRU Exemplar will be providing regasification services to Estonia, Finland, and other Baltic countries for ten years.

The FSRU can supply more than 5 billion cubic metres a year of regasification capacity, notes LNGPrime. According to Neftegaz.ru, Finland consumes around 2.3-2.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year. Practically the entire volume was previously provided by Russia.

Earlier, Reuters reported that the Dutch city of The Hague was going to ask for a temporary exemption of EU sanctions against Russia — they were not able to “find a replacement for its contract with Russian gas supplier Gazprom in time”.

According to the sanctions imposed on Russia, EU governments and other EU state bodies have to terminate contracts with Russia before 10 October 2022.