Excelerate Energy's floating storage and regasification unit (“FSRU”) Exemplar arrived at the port of Inkoo, Finland on December 28, 2022. 

The FSRU was previously loaded with a partial cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) which will serve as the initial commissioning cargo for the terminal.

"The FSRU Exemplar, which is chartered to Gasgrid Finland Oy (“Gasgrid”) for a period of ten years, will provide flexible, reliable, and secure delivery of regasified LNG to Finland and other Baltic countries," the FSRU owner said.  Gasgrid has chartered the FSRU at a total cost of €460 million for the ten-year charter.

“The arrival of the FSRU Exemplar at the port of Inkoo represents an important milestone for Finland as it prepares to enhance its energy security and bring essential energy infrastructure to the region,” said Steven Kobos, President and CEO of Excelerate. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved, and we are proud to have partnered with Gasgrid on this opportunity.”

Historic moment for Finland

 Olli Sipilä, Gasgrid Finland’s CEO said: “It is really great that the LNG floating terminal has now safely anchored in the deep harbour in Inkoo. Under Gasgrid’s leadership, the project has progressed incredibly efficiently with Finnish decision-makers and various authorities. The LNG floating terminal project is an excellent example of how seamless teamwork between different parties works in Finland at its best. I would like to thank all the professionals and decision-makers involved in the project."

"The LNG floating terminal project is highly important for Finnish society as a whole and today we are making Finnish economic history in many ways. Finland will permanently phase out its dependency on Russian gas and will greatly improve Finland’s security of supply. This is the first time ever that an LNG floating terminal has brought liquefied national gas to Finland,” says Sipilä. ”The aim is that the terminal’s customers will begin to distribute gas to meet the needs of Finnish industry, energy production and households from mid-January 2023 onwards.”

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In addition to providing regasification services under the Time Charter with Gasgrid, Excelerate, through its recently formed Finnish gas marketing subsidiary, Excelerate Finland Gas Marketing Oy (“Excelerate Finland”), has executed an agreement for the sale of commissioning volumes and regasification capacity rights during the commissioning phase. 

Through this agreement, Excelerate Finland will be able to provide natural gas to downstream customers in Finland and other Baltic countries.

The FSRU Exemplar departed drydock in Spain on December 6 where it underwent customer-requested winterization upgrades. 

The vessel subsequently procured its cargo from Excelerate’s global LNG portfolio via a ship-to-ship transfer with the FSRU Excelsior near Gibraltar. The Excelsior recently completed its 10-year service in Israel and will go on charter to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2023.

The FSRU Exemplar is 291 meters long and 43 meters wide. It has a storage capacity of 150,900 m³ of LNG and can provide more than 5 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) of regasification capacity.