The first-ever ship-to-ship (STS) transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Greek territorial waters has been successfully completed with the support of GAC Greece’s shipping and project logistics teams.
About 140,000 m³ of LNG was transferred from Hoegh Norway’s tanker Arctic Princess to GasLog Athens, a new Floating Storage Unit (FSU) currently anchored at Pachi, west of Athens, the capital of Greece.
The fully-loaded FSU is now ready to supplement Greece’s winter energy demands by topping up the Mediterranean country’s Revithoussa LNG Terminal, which is owned by Greece’s Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA).
GAC Greece acted as the official husbandry agent for GasLog Athens, as well as the charterers’ agent for Arctic Princess and its cargo. In addition, the office’s project logistics department imported six special fenders from China and the United Kingdom, as well as organising land and sea transportation, storage and warehousing, their inflation, mobilisation, fitting, demobilisation, and safe return.
According to GAC Greece, the installation of the new FSU was implemented in record time, following close coordination between DESFA and the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Insular Policy and the Regulatory Authority for Energy.
DESFA chief executive officer Maria Rita Galli commented, “We are satisfied that through our high technical expertise and our network, we are contributing significantly with yet another infrastructure to ensuring the country’s security of natural gas supply for the coming winter while, at the same time, we are further strengthening the strategic role that the LNG Terminal of Revithoussa plays in the wider region of Southeast Europe.”
In accordance with GAC Greece, the addition of FSU GasLog Athens at Pachi is one of the steps being taken to shore up Greece’s LNG supply and improve its local energy security.
