photo : ALEKSI MALINEN / TYÖ- JA ELINKEINOMINISTERIÖ
Mr . Riku Huttunen , Director General of the Energy Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment says that the crucial thing is to have the floating LNG terminal ready for use for the oncoming winter . This is a critical precautionary measure for the energy security both in Finland and in Estonia .
Located to the west of Helsinki on the southern Finnish coastline , Inkoo – the terminal ship ’ s destination – already has an optimal deep-water port at close proximity to the pipelines distributing natural gas mainly to industrial end-users in the Baltic region .
The floating storage and re-gasification unit ( FSRU ) ’ Exemplar ’ has a length of 291 meters and a width of 43 meters . The ship ’ s volume corresponds to approximately 68,000 tonnes of LNG when fully loaded . This will provide approximately
1,050 GWh of energy content , or – with refills – more than 40 TWh annually .
The ’ Exemplar ’ was built in South Korea and completed in 2010 . She is equipped with Kawasaki ’ s 26,500 kW gas turbine engine . The Texas-based Excelerate Energy acquired the ship in 2017 . Before setting course to Inkoo , the ship was stationed in Argentina .
Once the floating terminal is in position , smaller LNG tankers are expected to visit and refill it two to three times every month .
URGENT NEED FOR NEW GAS SOURCES
The Government of Finland started to prepare for the termination of pipeline gas supplies in April 2022 . The tasks of leasing a suitable LNG terminal and taking care of all related practicalities were delegated to the state-owned gas grid company Gasgrid Finland .
As Russia has proved to be an unreliable energy supplier , new sources for natural gas are required absolutely and urgently . seatec 4 / 2022 31