Port of Vlora FSRU

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Port of Vlora FSRU is a proposed floating LNG terminal in Port of Vlora, Albania.

Location

The proposed LNG terminal would be based in the Port of Vlora, Albania.

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Project details

• Owner: Excelerate Energy, ExxonMobil, and the Republic of Albania (The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy)
• FSRU Vessel Name: Unknown
• Location: Port of Vlora, Albania
• Coordinates: 40.449271, 19.480761 (approximate)
• Type: Import
• Capacity:
• Cost:
• Status: Proposed
• Start Year: 2023

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcm/y = billion cubic meters per year

Background

Excelerate Energy L.P. (Excelerate), ExxonMobil LNG Market Development Inc. (ExxonMobil), and the Republic of Albania (the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on March 12, 2021, to conduct a feasibility study for the potential development of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Port of Vlora in Southern Albania. Under the MOU, Excelerate will conduct a study to explore the potential of an integrated LNG-to-power solution that includes developing an LNG import terminal, converting and/or expanding the existing Vlora thermal power plant, and establishing small scale LNG distribution to Albania and the surrounding Balkans region. The pre-feasibility report is expected to be delivered in Q3 2021, while the targeted start-up for the LNG import project could be as early as 2023. As of December 2021, no progress on the pre-feasibility report had been reported.

In the first half of 2022, plans to develop the terminal were moving ahead rapidly. Excelerate's CEO Steven Kobos announced in a May 2022 conference call that the company would move its FSRU vessel Excelsior from Israel to Albania at the end of 2022, with commercial regasification operations expected to begin at Vlore in the second quarter of 2023. Development of the new terminal has prompted talk of Albania becoming a gas hub for the Balkans; as of June 2022, Albania had already begun discussing new energy agreements with neighboring countries including Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.

In July 2022, Excelerate announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Bulgaria's Overgas for negotiations to take place on the sale of regasified LNG downstream of the planned Vlora LNG terminal. The two companies said that they would enter into a negotiation for Overgas to purchase up to 1.0 billion cubic meters of regasified LNG annually for ten years from Excelerate (or an affiliated entity) via the Vlora Terminal and the proposed Vlora-Fier Gas Pipeline which is expected to interconnect with existing natural gas infrastructure in Europe's Southern Gas Corridor.

In October 2022, Excelerate announced that the Excelsior FSRU, intended for use at Vlora, would be deployed instead to Germany following the signing of a five-year charter contract with the German state. As of December 2022, there were no indications of alternative vessel arrangements having been made for the Port of Vlora project.

In April 2023, Port Europe noted that the Port of Vlora FSRU and Bar LNG Terminal in Montenegro appeared stalled.