Van Oord on dredging mission to lay the groundwork for Europe’s next FSRU

August 1, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Dutch marine contractor Van Oord has set off on a dredging quest to prepare the site where Poland’s floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) will be stationed as part of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Gulf of Gdańsk, representing a new gas entry point for the European country.

While announcing the start of preparatory work for the construction of Poland’s FSRU terminal, the country’s gas transmission system operator (TSO), Gaz-System, has confirmed that the dredging of the bottom of the Gulf of Gdańsk is currently underway at the site of the planned location of the first floating LNG terminal in this European nation.

Described as one of the key stages preceding the construction of the quay infrastructure, the works, being done with Van Oord’s vessels, will cover a total of nearly 656,000 square meters of the reservoir, after the removal of ferromagnetic objects from the seabed. The dredging work is divided into four stages.

Once the first segment, which involves deepening the section of the seabed where the future terminal quay will be built, is over, the next phase will continue near the planned infrastructure, up to the protective breakwater being constructed by the Maritime Office in Gdynia. The final two stages will cover the southern and eastern parts of the offshore construction site.

Sławomir Hinc, President of Management Board of Gaz-System, highlighted: “The commencement of preparatory work at sea is another important step in the implementation of the FSRU program.

“Deepening the seabed in the area of the future terminal is not only a prerequisite for the safe maneuvering and mooring of deep-draft vessels, but also the foundation for the efficient operation of the entire infrastructure.”

After the dredging is complete, mobilization of vessels, equipment, and materials necessary for pile driving, which entails driving piles into the seabed, will begin, subject to weather conditions and the environmentally sensitive period when the region’s natural environment is particularly susceptible to disturbances, such as fish spawning. These stages of work will continue into next year.

Poland’s TSO claims that some of the material dredged from the Gulf of Gdańsk will be used to replenish the beach in Górki Zachodnie, as the rest is destined for a special discharge area designated by the Maritime Office in Gdynia. The FSRU LNG terminal envisions the creation of infrastructure capable of receiving, process-based storage, and regasifying over 6 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

The regasification unit, currently under construction at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea, will be permanently moored in the southern part of the Gulf of Gdańsk, near the Port of Gdańsk, adjacent to the Baltic Hub, as the second facility in Poland, following the LNG terminal in Świnoujście, capable of receiving liquefied natural gas delivered by sea.

First steel cut for Poland’s FSRU at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard

Business Developments & Projects

The Polish player’s FSRU program encompasses the construction of the quay and offshore pipeline, alongside the expansion of the national transmission system with the addition of nearly 250 kilometers of new onshore pipelines. The new terminal is scheduled to be commissioned at the turn of 2027 and 2028.

Gaz-System is implementing the offshore portion of the investment using European Union funds, thanks to the European Commission’s award of funding for preparatory work under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), amounting to approximately €19.6 million. The TSO signed a loan agreement with Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) in June 2025, which will be allocated to the construction of natural gas infrastructure.

The financing comes from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO), within which the FSRU program is included in the REPowerEU section, an EU instrument supporting Europe’s rapid independence from Russian fossil fuels by 2030.

Poland’s FSRU project taking shape as onshore segment makes new inroads

Business Developments & Projects

According to the company, the project to build the onshore part of the terminal aligns with REPowerEU’s objectives, including increasing energy efficiency and eliminating barriers to the development of renewable energy sources.

“At Gaz-System, we are consistently developing a gas pipeline network that increases the possibilities of gas imports by sea and significantly strengthens Poland’s energy security,” emphasized Hinc.