Filenews 16 May 2022
The Greek-owned Dynagas will participate in the German energy recovery plans from Russian gas with two state-of-the-art tankers, the Transgas Force and the Transgas Power, with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters each, which can operate both as LNG carriers and as FSRU units. The two ships were delivered to the Greek shipowner in 2021 by the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding shipyard.
These plants are expected to be operational in 2023, which depends on the completion of the required onshore projects for the transport of LNG.
The two LNG units of the Greek shipowner, combined with two other Norwegian interests of the company Höegl LNG, "could supply the German energy network with up to 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year", i.e. "with two-thirds of the total quantity imported last year by Germany from Russia", the Handelsblatt report states.
The relevant agreement was recently signed in Wilhelmshafen, Lower Saxony in the North Sea, in the presence of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Economy Robert Habeck. A first floating LNG station is expected to open there, with the second one scheduled for Brunsbyttell in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The other two floating LNG stations are expected to be built later, possibly in Rostock or Hamburg.
Speaking to Handelsblatt, George Prokopiou described how at the age of six he created a raft of old boards on the beach of Glyfada, leading it to the Saronic Gulf. "When I felt the waves, I knew what I wanted to be," he noted. He acquired his first real ship in 1972: with two partners, he bought the 55,000-ton tanker "Pennsylvania" from Getty Oil. Today, through his companies, he manages a fleet of more than 120 ships worth about two billion dollars.
When in 2016 he ordered the two ships – floating LNG units from the Chinese state-owned shipyard Hudong-Zhonghua, no one had thought that war could break out in Ukraine six years later, nor such an energy crisis.
As Handelsblatt notes, the delivery of the two ships in the autumn of 2021 showed that the Greek shipowner had the right intuition and good timing: With gas prices taking off, the fares of LNG tankers also increased. Within a few months, daily prices in the spot market rose from $50,000 to more than $300,000.
Source: Capital.gr
