LNG

German oil and gas major Wintershall Dea has expressed confidence various projects bringing pipeline natural gas supplies from Russia and Norway in the face of no competition as yet in the largest European Union economy from LNG shipments.

German company TGE Gas Engineering GmbH has signed a contract with Flogas Britain Ltd, a company with several LNG firsts to its name, for the conversion of a former National Grid LNG peak-shaving facility at Avonmouth in southeast England into a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal.

German LNG Terminal, the Dutch-led joint venture developing a planned liquefied natural gas import terminal at Brunsbuettel on the Elbe River near Hamburg, expects to make an investment decision soon after binding import contracts have been finalised at the end of 2020.

RWE, Germany’s largest utility and power producer and whose headquarters are in the city of Essen, confirmed that it had secured potentially 5 billion cubic metres of import capacity at Brunsbuettel as it also seeks a wider role for the facility.

“Currently the parties are in the final phase of negotiating fully binding legal contracts for LNG imports,” said RWE and German LNG Terminal in a joint statement.

“RWE and German LNG expect this process to be finalised by the end of 2020, putting German LNG in a position to reach a positive investment decision shortly thereafter,” it added.

German LNG Terminal is a venture comprising Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, German tank storage provider Oiltanking GmbH, and Dutch storage company Royal Vopak.

Gasunie and Vopak were the development companies behind the Dutch Gate LNG terminal at the port of Rotterdam.

RWE added that LNG import terminals like Brunsbuettel could also be combined with entry points for (liquid) hydrogen produced in other regions of the world where wind and solar energy are available at larger scale and lower cost than in Germany.

“Existing gas pipelines connected to the LNG terminal are perfectly fit to distribute hydrogen locally,” said RWE.

Javier Moret, Global Head of LNG at RWE Supply & Trading GmbH, said his company was an advocate of LNG.

“It can provide Germany with clean and affordable energy today and at the same time contribute to reducing emissions in the maritime and road transport sector as an alternative fuel,” added Moret.

“At the same time we want to make sure we are prepared for the next technological advancement. In the future hydrogen will play a key role as a climate-neutral fuel in the energy mix,” he explained.

“We are prepared for this next step with the new agreement. Therefore we are happy to support German LNG Terminal’s initiative in this field,” stated Moret.

Currently the parties are in the final phase of negotiating fully binding legal contracts for LNG imports.

RWE and German LNG expect this process to be finalised by the end of 2020, putting German LNG in a position to reach a positive investment decision shortly thereafter.

Another German utility, Uniper, is backing a second German import project at the deepwater North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven using a floating storage and regasification unit.
Uniper has said it expected that a competitive tender process would be conducted in the months ahead to seek binding accords with potential customers

Germany, the largest natural gas pipeline consumer in the European Union and a future LNG importer, is set to be the first country to end both nuclear and coal power under an agreement to compensate workers, companies and regional governments as it switches off coal-fired plants by 2038.

Woodside Petroleum, the Australian LNG plant operator, has signed a firm supply agreement with Uniper Global Commodities, a unit of the Germany utility Uniper.

Qatar Petroleum and German utility Uniper are in firm talks on the supply of LNG by Qatargas to the proposed import terminal at the North Sea port of Wilhemshaven in the state of Lower Saxony.

The body representing German pipeline operators said the leading European Union nation would have enough natural gas this winter, despite restrictions on transit routes for Russian supplies because of an EU ruling in favour of Poland and as Germany is developing its first LNG import facilities.

Wintershall DEA of Germany would become the leading independent oil and gas producer in Europe when the merger is completed by mid-2019 between Wintershall and Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA), with operations stretching from Argentina’s Shale Basin to Russia, though unusually for an energy company of its size with no presence in the LNG sector.

German energy utility RWE has signed a fully termed and binding LNG supply agreement with Australian LNG plant operator Woodside Petroleum with the primary shipments coming from Woodside’s contracted volumes booked at the US Corpus Christi LNG export plant in Texas.

German energy utility RWE has signed a cooperation accord with Tokyo Gas of Japan on procurement of liquefied natural gas as well as trading and shipping activities.