Germany confirms charters of four FSRUs

"One of the Höegh ships is already available and will be used in Wilhelmshaven at the turn of the year 2022-2023. Work to prepare the infrastructure has already progressed here.

Höegh’s second ship is scheduled to be stationed in Brunsbüttel at the beginning of 2023. A location decision has yet to be made for Dynagas’ ships; but this should be done as soon as possible. Stade, Rostock, Hamburg-Moorburg or Eemshaven in the Netherlands can be considered as further locations for stationing an FSRU," BMWK said.

Germany does not currently have its own LNG terminal in the EU, nor does it have any floating LNG terminals. There are LNG terminals in other EU countries, for example in neighbouring Netherlands, France, Belgium and Poland, which can also be used to supply Germany. Together, these represent a regasification capacity of approximately 40Bn m³ per year. With a gas requirement of approximately 95Bn m³ per year for Germany and high demand from the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Poland, the landing capacities are not sufficient to land additional quantities destined for Germany, according to the government.

The German Government has now optioned four FSRUs, instead of the three originally targeted, through RWE and Uniper, allocating €2.94Bn (US$3.09Bn) for the vessels that will enable LNG imports to be fed into the German energy grid. The four FSRUs represent a regasification volume of at least 5Bn m³/year each.

Germany is currently working rapidly to reduce its dependence on Russian energy and to broaden the supply base of its energy. 

On 1 May, German Vice Chancellor and Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck offered a progress report on the country’s shift away from Russian energy.

Minister Habeck said, “In the last few weeks, we have made further intensive efforts with all the relevant stakeholders to import less fossil fuel from Russia and to broaden our supply base. Dependence on oil is down to 12%; the figure for coal is 8% and around 35% for gas. All of the steps we are taking are demanding a massive joint effort by all the stakeholders, and they are also generating costs, as is being felt by businesses and household consumers. But they are necessary if we are not to remain open to blackmail by Russia.”

The minister said the work to shift away from Russian energy requires construction of infrastructure and pasage of new laws to accelerate the construction of LNG terminals and pipelines.

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