Greece’s first floating LNG import facility moved a step closer to fruition on Thursday, after market players booked capacity hailed by the $420m project’s managers as "very satisfactory".

Binding pledges reached an aggregate annual level of 2.6bn cbm of regasification capacity over a period of 15 years, the Gastrade venture said in a statement on 26 March, after a deadline to submit them expired.

The 2.6bn cbm represents nearly half the project's nominal maximum capacity of 5.5bn cbm. The initial, non-binding market test carried out in January last year yielded 12.2bn cbm of total interest by about 20 companies.

Gastrade, nevertheless, described the latest test results as a "great success".

"The response from the market to the Alexandroupolis LNG Market Test was very satisfactory and far surpassed the one experienced in similar cases of new gas projects recently," it said in a statement on Thursday.

Gastrade did not elaborate how many clients came forward to book capacity. TradeWinds understands that significant, long-term quantities were pledged by Greece’s DEPA and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz — two state-owned companies, affiliates of which already own a 20% stake each in the project.

More capacity may be booked if the venture concludes talks to get a new 20% equity partner on board. Rumours in Athens suggest Romania’s state-run Romgaz could be an investor.

GasLog owns 20% of Gastrade. The venture's founder, Elmina Copelouzou, holds the remaining 40%. Gastrade's future fifth shareholder would take his stake out of hers.

Maturing quickly

Located near Greece’s border with Turkey and Bulgaria, the Alexandroupolis project aims to create a hub for natural gas trade in southeast Europe.

Successful conclusion of the market test is a "critical step towards the materialisation of the project", its managing director Konstantinos Spyropoulos said in the statement.

A final investment decision (FID) on the project is expected in the third quarter of 2020, US-listed GasLog said earlier this month in an annual filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Purchase of the floating storage and regasification unit and start-up of the facility are anticipated about two years after the FID, GasLog added. This is a significant delay from an earlier target to have the facility up and running by early 2021.

A source close to the project, however, said things are speeding up now. Financing is secured, with the help of the European Union. A tender to build the pipeline and offshore installation is also said to be “maturing quickly”.

Shortlisted companies are expected to receive the procurement tender for the FSRU by the end of March.

“Should GasLog be selected as the provider of the FSRU, it is currently expected that we would sell a TFDE [tri-fuel diesel-electric] vessel, converted to a FSRU, to Gastrade,” GasLog said in its annual filing.

One possible conversion candidate is the 150,000-cbm GasLog Savannah (built 2010), which the company floated as a sales candidate in October last year. No deal to sell the ship has materialised so far.

GasLog has six wholly-owned TFDE vessels in a fleet of 14 units on the water. The GasLog Savannah is among the company's three oldest TFDE vessels.

The other is the 155,000-cbm GasLog Singapore, which the company has already earmarked for a floating storage project.

In September, GasLog signed a 10-year time-charter with Sinolam Smarter Energy LNG Power Co to provide it with an LNG floating storage unit. GasLog said it expects to convert the GasLog Singapore for the project, which is backed by a 15-year LNG sale-and- purchase agreement with Shell. Sinolam is a unit of private Chinese investment group Shanghai Gorgeous Investment Development Co.