Multiple terminals in Germany and one in Finland have begun operations or announced readiness for gas deliveries
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.
About 50% of Germany’s natural gas has been supplied by Russia in recent years, and as a result, Germany has enacted emergency energy measures, announcing multiple LNG import terminals, including five based on FSRUs, since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In December 2022, commodities trader Trafigura secured US$3Bn in LNG supplies from American suppliers which will make its way into the German gas grid as part of a four-year loan deal between Trafigura, the German Government and more than 25 banks including Deutsche Bank.
Since Russia began its war against Ukraine in early 2022 and the ensuing energy market proxy wars between Western nations and Russia, the German Government has spent nearly US$500Bn on actions to replace lost gas volumes previously provided by Russia-owned suppliers and reset its energy markets.
The latest move by the German federal government has been to agree to nationalise Uniper as part of the largest corporate bailout in the country’s history.
According to Reuters reporting, confirmed by Uniper, Germany will take on US$230Bn of Uniper’s gas trading market derivatives after the company posted a nearly US$40Bn loss for the first nine months of 2022 in its Q3 results. Uniper has said it expects the losses, tied to Russia ceasing to deliver future gas volumes, to continue until the end of 2024. In June, Germany promised a rescue package for Uniper, which effectively saw the German state take over Uniper’s Finnish parent company Fortum.
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