LNG terminals in northern Europe start operations

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has confimed the state-owned, BMWK-managed firm Deutsche Energy Terminal (DET) began operations on Monday at the Brunsbüttel terminal, under chief executive Peter Röttgen.

DET will oversee LNG import terminal operations linked to some of the German government-chartered FSRUs from Höegh LNG (3), Dynagas (1) and Excelerate Energy (1) that will supply operations in Brunsbüttel, Lubmin, Wilhelmshaven and Stade.

The privately owned Deutsche Regas LNG import terminal in Lubmin made its official launch as the second FSRU-based LNG import facility in Germany amid much fanfare on 14 January. The heart of the new receiving terminal is 145,130-m³ FSRU Neptune chartered from Höegh LNG.

The state-owned facility at Wilhelmshaven, the first FSRU-based LNG import facility to begin operations in Germany, took delivery of its second cargo of LNG this week. In December, Uniper said commissioning of the new terminal was underway just two days after announcing the arrival of the Höegh Esperanza FSRU in Wilhelmshaven, and that gas would flow to the grid before Christmas. Höegh LNG signed a binding 10-year time charter contract with BMWK for the 170,000-m³ FSRU vessel on delivery. The FSRU is expected to supply an annual volume of at least 5 Bn cubic meters of natural gas into the German long-distance gas grid. The volume represents around 6% of Germany’s annual gas consumption, and according to Uniper, will replace about 11% of Germany’s gas imports from Russia.

To date, Höegh is supplying two 170,000-m³ FSRUs in Germany, Höegh Esperanza at Wilhelmshaven and another at Brunsbüttel to make the country’s first LNG import hubs viable. The German government-backed Elbhafen LNG import terminal in Brunsbüttel, managed by RWE, is the next terminal expected to come online. Höegh Gannet is expected to arrive in Brunsbüttel January 2023. Höegh has also supplied the 145,130-m³ FSRU Neptune at the aforementioned privately-owned Lubmin terminal. 

Gasgrid Finland has announced that its floating LNG terminal is "ready for gas deliveries".

"The LNG terminal ship Exemplar arrived in Inkoo 28 December and has now been successfully integrated into Gasgrid’s gas transmission network," the company said.

The 291-m floating terminal contains approximately 68,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas when fully loaded. The amount equates to approximately 1,050 GWh of energy.

"The ship’s annual vaporisation capacity of 40 TWh clearly exceeds Finland’s annual natural gas consumption. The LNG terminal also enables gas deliveries to the Baltic countries and even Poland through the Balticconnector connecting pipe," Gasgrid said.