Factbox: Germany builds up LNG import terminals

KN Energies AB

30/01/2025 11:29

(Updates Nov. 19 Factbox to link to Deutsche ReGas story,
rearranges order, updates links)
       Jan 30 (Reuters) - Germany is expanding its natural gas
import options to replace Russian supply, a drive intensified by
the latest suspension of Russian flows via Ukraine and U.S.
President Donald Trump targeting Europe with liquefied natural
gas exports.
    Below are details on terminals being developed to host
floating storage regasification units to receive seaborne LNG.
    Plans also include shore-based regasification terminals and
facilities to import and produce ammonia and green hydrogen
under decarbonisation strategies.
    
    MUKRAN
    Mukran, on Ruegen island in the Baltic Sea, supplies onshore
grids with LNG via pipeline firm Gascade's new OAL pipeline.
    Private company Deutsche ReGas started reloading services
from the LNG tanker Coral Energy in September, also using
smaller tankers to deliver LNG to locations without pipeline
access.
    This followed the opening of regular operations at the site
with FSRUs Energos Power and Neptune.
    Gascade completed the 50 km (30 miles) OAL infrastructure a
year ago, with existing onshore pipelines NEL, EUGAL and OPAL
offering long-distance transport to southward geographies.
    ReGas holds long-term supply deals with France's
TotalEnergies  TTEF.PA  and trading group MET.
    ReGas says it fears that state-owned Deutsche Energy
Terminal GmbH (DET) may undercut its fees to attract cargoes at
its more western terminals in the North Sea while business is
generally slow.
    The Mukran project has triggered local opposition, but 
legal challenges have been thrown out.
    
    LUBMIN
    ReGas and Norwegian LNG-tanker operator Hoegh last June
signed an agreement to develop the Baltic Sea port, a forerunner
of Mukran, into an ammonia/hydrogen import terminal.
    On Oct. 14, the Federal Administrative Court backed Lubmin's
operations, throwing out a case brought by environmental group
DUH against its permit.
    
    STADE
    DET has said in German media reports that FSRUs at both
Stade and Wilhelmshaven 2 will start operations in the winter,
without specifying precise commissioning dates.
    Last June, developers at the Elbe river inland port of Stade
formally inaugurated a land-based "ammonia ready" terminal for
start in 2027, for which a final investment decision was taken
by Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH) in March.
    The FSRU Energos Force arrived on March 15 and is expected
to operate until 2027, ahead of the onshore terminal starting
operations.
    The onshore terminal, to be built by Spain's Tecnicas
Reunidas  TRE.MC , is expected to cost around 1 billion euros 
($1.04 billion).
    Gas to arrive there has been allocated to state-controlled
SEFE, utility EnBW  EBKG.DE  and Czech utility CEZ  CEZP.PR .
    HEH is backed by investment firm Partners Group  PGHN.S ,
logistics group Buss, chemicals company Dow  DOW.N , and Spanish
grid operator Enagas.
    A separate, Buss-led, consortium is nurturing plans for a
100 megawatt (MW) electrolysis plant, to be decided on in 2026,
it said in November.

    WILHELMSHAVEN
    Utility Uniper  UN01.DE  launched Germany's first FSRU
operation, Wilhelmshaven 1, on the North Sea, in 2022.
    Uniper plans two green gas systems in the longer term: it
will add a land-based ammonia import reception terminal and
cracker in the second half of this decade to make green
hydrogen.
    Last November, it said it had picked U.S. manufacturer
Electric Hydrogen as supplier of a 200 MW electrolyser to be fed
with local wind power.
    Another operator, Tree Energy Solutions (TES), plans a
second FSRU, Wilhelmshaven 2 through to 2027, which isn't
installed, and says it plans to eventually convert its
operations to clean gases.
    
    BRUNSBUETTEL
    The Brunsbuettel FSRU went into operation in April 2023 on
the North Sea coast, initially chartered and operated by utility
RWE's  RWEG.DE  trading arm before it was handed over to DET at
the start of 2024.
    It is the forerunner of a land-based LNG facility which has
been cleared to receive 40 million euros of state support.
    It could start operations at the end of 2026, when a newly
inaugurated, adjacent ammonia terminal could also start up.
    State bank KfW, Gasunie and RWE are stakeholders and oil
major Shell  SHEL.L  has committed to sizeable purchases.
    ($1 = 0.9609 euros)

 (Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Ros Russell and Mark
Potter)
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 2201 33654;))