Gastrade, heading an effort for the development of an FSRU project in Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece, is close to launching a binding second-round market test for annual capacity reservations, seen taking place within July.

The company has requested the approval of market-test guidelines and regulations from RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, sources have informed.

Once this stage has been completed, participants will receive a series of related documents covering issues such as capacity reservation and guarantees.

Pricing policy is among the matters that have been discussed between Gastrade and RAE in the lead-up. Gastrade has opted for a flexible pricing policy promising users a range of choices on aspects such as LNG quantities, products and commitment durations.

Binding second-round market test participants will be given approximately two months to make their capacity reservations for the LNG terminal, sources have estimated.

The market test’s first round, a non-binding stage, was completed on December 31. Twenty firms based in various parts of the wider region, as well as major international gas traders, expressed official interest for annual capacity reservations totaling 12.2 billion cubic meters, which exceeded the project’s planned regasification capacity of 5.5 billion cubic meters.