In October last year, Gastrade announced this maintenance as part of the company’s annual plan for the gas year 2025–2026.
The maintenance started on April 1 and is expected to last until June 30.
Gastrade’s spokesperson said the maintenance “concerns the implementation of final system adjustments, carried out for the completion of the remediation works regarding the technical issue that emerged in January 2025.”
Upon completion of these adjustments, all remaining operational constraints will be lifted, she said.
In August last year, Gastrade resumed Alexandroupolis FSRU operations following a technical issue in January of the same year.
The FSRU resumed operations at a limited regasification capacity of 45.4 GWh/day, including redundancy with respect to its booster pumps.
In September, the company increased the maximum regasification capacity of the Alexandroupolis LNG terminal to 90.8 GWh/day.
Gastrade further increased the capacity to 136.2 GWh/day on October 21.
Six cargoes since restart
During October, Gastrade received the first LNG shipment since the technical issue in January. This was also the fifth commercial LNG delivery to the FSRU-based facility.
TotalEnergies supplied this US LNG shipment to Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz under a four-cargo tender.
In addition to TotalEnergies, Greece’s Metlen Energy & Metals was selected to supply LNG in December 2025 and January 2025, while Shell was selected to supply LNG in March.
Metlen delivered both of these cargoes from the US.
Since the restart of operations, six cargoes have been delivered to the terminal, the Gastrade spokeswoman said.
Apart from one cargo, all other cargoes arrived from the US, the spokeswoman noted.
“A further two cargoes are scheduled for delivery in late June and August, respectively, while there is demand for additional spot cargoes for the same period,” she said.
Bulgaria’s state-owned gas system operator Bulgartransgaz, a unit of Bulgarian Energy Holding, plans to launch its first LNG supply tender later this month.
Previously, Bulgargaz, which is also a unit of BEH, issued several LNG tenders to purchase cargoes via Greek and Turkish LNG terminals.
Bulgartransgaz, a shareholder in Gastrade’s FSRU-based Alexandroupolis LNG terminal, plans to purchase 1,500,000 MWh of LNG, covering the period from July 2026 to September 2027, and receive the supplies at the FSRU.
The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal has a capacity of up to 5.5 bcm per year, or some 66.3 TWh per year.
It is the first FSRU-based facility in Greece and complements DESFA’s LNG import terminal on the island of Revithoussa.
Gastrade’s shareholders include founder Copelouzou, DESFA, DEPA, Bulgartransgaz, and GasLog.
