Gazprom installs FSRU offshore western Russia

Commissioning has started of Russia’s first floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in the Baltic Sea, offshore the Kaliningrad enclave in western Russia.

Gazprom contracted the vessel and the associated offshore gas reception terminal to improve the reliability of gas supplies to the Kaliningrad region.

Previously it had constructed the Kaliningradskoye underground gas storage (UGS) facility in 2013 and increased throughput capacity of the Minsk – Vilnius – Kaunas – Kaliningrad gas pipeline, which had been the sole route for gas deliveries to Russia’s westernmost region.

To enhance the region’s energy security the company investigated an alternative gas supply method involving LNG deliveries by sea.

The new terminal features a fixed marine berth with a breakwater, a first for Russia, five kilometres (3.1 miles from the shore. Here the sea is around 19 metres (62 feet) deep, sufficient for mooring of the Marshal Vasilevskiy FSRU.

The vessel has capacity to transport up to 174,000 cubic metres (5.145 bcf) of LNG and undertakes re-gasification operations. The latter can start as soon as the vessel is moored at the berth.

Liquefied gas is converted to gaseous form and fed into the existing gas transmission system via a newly-built 13-kilometre (eight mile) pipeline, with some of the gas injected into the Kaliningradskoye UGS facility.

Gazprom aims to deliver up to 3.7 bcm/yr via this arrangement.

The Marshal Vasilevskiy has three regasification lines (including one backup line). It is an Arc 4 ice-class vessel, capable of independent navigation through ice up to 0.8 metres thick.

Source: Offshore Magazine