Greece's 4.3mn t/yr Alexandroupolis LNG import terminal will remain off line until 15 August, after which it will return to 25pc of capacity for the remainder of the gas year, an updated urgent market message (UMM) from operator Gastrade says.
The terminal has been off line since 28 January because of damage to the booster pumps on the floating storage and regasification unit, Gastrade said, and it will remain fully unavailable until 15 August, after which onward regasification services will resume capped at 25pc of maximum capacity, or about 42 GWh/d, with available redundancy for the booster pumps.
This availability will be offered for 15 August-30 September only under "certain operational and commercial conditions", Gastrade specified, and several market participants were unsure of what this phrase meant or whether regasification would in fact be possible at all during this period.
From the start of the new gas year on 1 October, the 25pc cap will be lifted, but "certain operation constraints may remain for a limited period of time", the operator said.
The previous version of the the UMM listed the shutdown end date as 15 May, although Gastrade had already told Argus in April that it did not expect to return to full operations until October.