A sailaway ceremony for Malta’s planned LNG floating storage unit (FSU) was held at Keppel Shipyard in Singapore today as the Mediterranean island prepares to launch its long planned LNG import project.
Malta’s prime minister Joseph Muscat flew in to the island state to tour the Armada LNG Mediterrana, the converted 125,877-cbm LNG carrier Wakaba Maru (built 1985).
The FSU is owned by Malaysia’s Bumi Armada and will be used in conjunction with an onshore regasification plant as the import terminal for ElectroGas Malta’s 215-megawatt, gas-fired Delimara power plant.
A statement from the PM’s office said the FSU “will be dispatched in the coming days to Malta”. It is scheduled to arrive in September.
The conversion job has taken 17 months and has not been without its complextities.
Today Muscat hailed Electrogas’ new power plant as “the most critical component” in the government’s objectives to meet its energy roadmap.
He described today’s ceremony as “not just about inaugurating a critical infrastructure of this new electricity generation project. It is a celebration of freedom of a small country.”
