RINA, the inspection, certification and consulting engineering multinational, in partnership with Asprofos, a leading Greek engineering consultancy with deep experience in energy infrastructure, have secured a contract to provide project management consultancy  services for the Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System , owned and developed by the Greek Company Gastrade S.A. whose shareholders include Ms. E. Copelouzou, GasLog Cyprus Investments Ltd., DEPA Commercial S.A., Bulgartransgaz EAD and DESFA S.A.

The project will increase and add security and diversification of gas supplies in the region of Southeast Europe. It will consist of a permanently moored Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) and a Pipeline system of 28 km connecting the floating unit to the Greek National Natural Gas Transmission System (NNGTS). The FSRU will be stationed in the north-eastern part of the Aegean Sea, approximately 17.6 km SW of the town of Alexandroupolis in Northeast Greece. The FSRU will have a storage capacity of 153,500 m³, a nominal gas send out rate of 625,000 m³/h, corresponding to 5.5 bln m³/y (530 mmscfd) and a peak (without redundancy) gas send out rate of up to 944,000 m³/h, corresponding to 8.3 bln m³/y (800 mmscfd).

The Project is being financed through own resources with co-financing from public funds, the National Bank of Greece and shareholder equity. Public funds will be provided through the Greek Public Investment Programme (codes: 2021ΣΕ17510003 and 2021ΣΕ175100040, partly through national participation and partly through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the 2014-2020 programming period and under the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020 (EPAnEK)”.

This terminal is a fast-track project, with the FSRU scheduled to be online by the end of 2023. RINA and Asprofos will make sure that the contractual requirements of the project in terms of expected performance, quality, safety and planning are met.  As well as supporting the owner on technical and managerial planning and oversight the two partners will act as an interface, through a multidisciplinary team of experts covering the different needs of the project.

Leonardo Brunori, Executive Vice President Energy & Mobility at RINA, explains: “This is a crucial project for the security of European energy supplies. Recent events have highlighted the danger of relying on a single country for our energy needs. RINA has a long and proud track record of delivering FSRU and LNG projects globally having worked on over 200 in the last fifteen years. We look forward to working together with Asprofos to deliver this strategically important terminal enabling Europe to further diversify access to energy.”

Dionysios Belekoukias, Managing Director at Asprofos, says “We are delighted with the contract and to be working with RINA on this important project. We were awarded the contract because of our combined strong technical competencies. Over the last 35 years Asprofos has gained extensive experience in the natural gas sector having been involved in all phases of the majority of the National Natural Gas System of Greece, including the LNG Terminal in Revithoussa. We have also been actively involved in most of the natural gas projects which have been implemented or are under development in Greece such as Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), IGI Poseidon Pipeline, EastMed Pipeline, covering engineering, environmental, permitting, project management, construction management and supervision services. There are few companies that would be able to meet the diverse technical and geographical requirements of the project.”