LNG

Deutsche Regas GmbH, the operator of the floating liquefied natural gas import terminal at the Baltic Sea port of Lubmin, is now making more progress on meeting operational standards at the company’s second German Baltic regasification terminal, located at the port of Mukran on Germany’s largest island of Rügen.

The floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) “Energos Power” docked at Mukran on the tourist island of Rügen on February 24.

The second German Baltic Sea received the emission control and water law permits on April 10 for the operation of the terminal under the jurisdiction of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Targets

“We have now been able to install all of the currently planned expansion stages for further noise-reducing measures on the ‘FSRU Energos Power’ vessel,” explained Deutsche Regas.

“They make a noticeable contribution to further reducing noise emissions from the FSRU,” stated Deutsche Regas.

The company noted that an independent assessor's office continues to measure and ongoing noise emissions in the area of the Mukran industrial port.

“These measurements are determining the comprehensive effectiveness of the noise reduction,” added Deutsche Regas.

“They also confirm that all legal limit values ​​were adhered to at all times and throughout the entire trial operation,” the company said.

“By installing the noise-reducing measures, we would like to keep possible exposure for all residents, for all our neighbours and our neighbours in the area of ​​the Mukran industrial port as low as possible,” stated Deutsche Regas.

Regas vessel

The “Energos Power” is 300 metres in length and is part of a plan to provide adequate natural gas to replace pipeline gas previously received from Russia’s Gazprom.

The FSRU “Energos Power” with 174,000 cubic metres capacity had formerly been called the “Transgas Power”.

The Mukran floating LNG operations include a 50 kilometres (31 miles) pipeline that will transport the regasified LNG to the mainland and into the German gas grid.

Deutsche ReGas has cooperated on the project with German Transmission System Operator, Gascade GmbH.

Gascade has been overseeing connections to gas grids in the rest of Germany and the European Union via the North European Natural Gas Pipeline (NEL), the Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung (OPAL) and the European Gas Pipeline Link (EUGAL).

The energy terminal will feed up to 13.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually into the EUGAL/OPAL and NEL gas pipeline network, the most important gas supply lines in eastern Germany.

Deutsche Regas GmbH, the operator of the floating liquefied natural gas import terminal at the Baltic Sea port of Lubmin, said operating permits had been received at the company’s second German Baltic regasification terminal, located at the port of Mukran on Germany’s largest island of Rügen to allow operations to formally begin.

Deutsche Regas GmbH, the operator of the floating liquefied natural gas import terminal at the Baltic Sea port of Lubmin, said a vessel carrying LNG for a second German Baltic regasification terminal had arrived at the port of Mukran on Germany’s largest island of Rügen to begin commissioning.

The floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) “Energos Power” docked at Mukran on the tourist island of Rügen on February 24.

The “Energos Power” is 300 metres in length and is part of a plan to provide adequate natural gas to replace pipeline gas previously received from Russia’s Gazprom.

Deutsche Regas said the “Energos Power” with 174,000 cubic metres capacity had formerly been called the “Transgas Power” and was carrying LNG sourced from Equinor’s liquefaction plant at Hammerfest in northern Norway.

Pipeline to mainland

The Mukran floating LNG operations include a 50 kilometres (31 miles) pipeline that will transport the regasified LNG to the mainland and into the German gas grid.

“As promised, we will begin transferring natural gas from Mukran to Germany's gas transmission network with the ‘Energos Power’ FSRU,” said Deutsche ReGas Chief Executive Stephan Knabe.

“I would like to thank everyone involved, our partner companies and especially our employees for the tireless work and close and constructive cooperation on the project,” Knabe added.

“The ‘Energos Power’ will now enable trial operations to test all land and seaborne systems and to make them all fully operational,” the CEO stated.

The project was also praised as positive for Germany by the Social Democrat (SPD) Commissioner for eastern Germany, Carsten Schneider. He said the floating LNG project was an energy bonus for the Baltic Coast region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

“The Rügen terminal will guarantee Germany's energy independence as well as that of numerous companies,” Carsten explained about the Mukran project that had overcome opposition from environmental activists opposed to fossil fuels.

Opposition

German environmental groups such as Environmental Action Germany (DUH) had accused Deutsche Regas of turning the popular holiday island of Rügen into a “fossil fuel” energy park.

Opponents had fought the Mukran project for more than a year, arguing that Germany's strategic natural gas reserves were already secured with other LNG import terminals.

Currently, other FSRUs are operating at nearby Lubmin, at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven and at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe and with a fifth proposed for the port of Stade, also located on the Elbe between Hamburg and Cuxhaven.

Deutsche Regas noted that by mid-year 2024 the FSRU “Neptune” currently deployed at Lubmin would be moved to Mukran to operate alongside the “Energos Power”.

FSRUs in Germany

The other vessels involved in German FLNG projects so far include the Höegh LNG FSRUs “Höegh Esperanza” at Wilhelmshaven and “Hoegh Gannet” at Brunsbüttel as well as the “Neptune”, partly owned by Höegh LNG and chartered to TotalEnergies, and currently operating at the port of Lubmin.

Another ship, a floating storage unit (FSU), the “Seapeak Hispania”, was also anchored near Lubmin to transfer cargoes to the “Neptune” via small-scale LNG carriers.

The Brunsbüttel FSRU is part of LNG operations run by RWE as a forerunner to an onshore terminal being developed by Dutch utility Gasunie, RWE and with a stake held by a German state bank.

Deutsche ReGas GmbH, the German owner of the floating LNG terminal at the Baltic Sea port of Lubmin and with another floating terminal set to start at the nearby port of Mukran, said it would hold an open season in November for short-term capacities.

The German Parliament has voted to allow the development before the winter of a liquefied natural gas import facility in the port of Mukran on the island of Rügen and involving the “FSRU Transgas Power” vessel.

“The Bundestag and Bundesrat both voted on July 7 to allow the construction of an LNG terminal in the port of Mukran on the island of Rügen. Both voted for an amendment to the LNG Acceleration Act,” said a statement.

“The terminal in the port of Mukran should be available for this winter in about six months’ time,” added the Government statement.

Analysts note that the LNG import issue has become a key policy for Chancellor Olaf Stolz’s coalition Government and has caused a partial split with the Greens within the coalition.

Time limitation

The SPD in the Baltic Coast area of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the “FSRU Transgas Power” is to be deployed, are calling for a limitation on the duration of the FLNG project in Mukran.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's state Environment Minister Till Backhaus, a member of the SPD, said that the applications for the planned LNG terminal have still to be thoroughly examined and were far from complete.

According to Backhaus, the responsible authorities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will take a very close look at the applications and may seek amendments.

“From my point of view, the last word has not yet been spoken on the length of the project. We will not accept operating the LNG terminal for the current time span of 20 years,” stated Backhaus.

The Mukran terminal will be part of the operations of Deutsche ReGas GmbH, which has other vessels at the nearby Baltic port of Lubmin and signed an agreement in June 2023 with the Federal Government on deploying the “FSRU Transgas Power”.

Conditions

“The company will be the sub-charterer of the regasification ship to be used together with the ‘Neptune’ in Phase II of the LNG terminal ‘Deutsche Ostsee’ in the port of Mukran,” stated Deutsche ReGas.

It added that as agreed, Deutsche ReGas will assume the rights and obligations of the head charterer in the contract between the Federal Government and Greek shipowner Dynagas.

The Maltese-flagged vessel has 174,000 cubic metres of capacity. It was delivered to Dynagas in 2021 and has a regasification capacity of up to 7.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per annum.

The Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) allowed Deutsche ReGas, a private company, to set up LNG import facilities on the basis that a minimum amount of gas was imported.

Deutsche ReGas said that when the Mukran Port operation starts the total injection capacity of the Baltic LNG operations will total 13.5 Bcm per annum, which would be in accordance with the Bundesnetzagentur requirements.

April 13 (LNGJ) - Two US LNG cargoes are heading for Germany next week. The “LNG Rosenrot” with 177,000 cubic metres of capacity is scheduled to deliver a cargo on April 20 from Freeport export plant in Texas to the floating LNG facility at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven, according to shipping data

   The “Minerva Amorgos” with 174,000 metres capacity is also due to deliver a cargo on April 20 from the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana to the German Baltic Sea terminal at Lubmin.

Macquarie Capital, the investment banking arm of the Australian Macquarie bank group, said it would continue to work with Deutsche ReGas GmbH, the German owner of the floating LNG terminal at the Baltic port of Lubmin as the company plans to expand its operations.

Deutsche ReGas had earlier proposed to more than double the 5.2 billion cubic metres of regasification capacity by 2025, though now has plans for a slightly earlier expansion and investment.

Macquarie’s stake in German LNG is being overseen by a dedicated but operationally independent subsidiary of the Sydney-based bank called WaveCrest Energy LLC.

“The WaveCrest management team has an established track record of bringing LNG and related energy projects from concept to operations, utilizing its deep technical and operating experience with FSRU assets,” said a statement.

“Macquarie Capital and WaveCrest will continue to look for further opportunities to work with Deutsche ReGas as the business looks to more than double the Ostsee (Baltic)  terminal’s regasification capacity,” Macquarie added.

Multiple projects

Germany is continuing to develop LNG import infrastructure at ports along the coast, also including Wilhelmshaven in the North Sea and the Elbehafen project at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River north of Hamburg.

The build-out of projects will enable the country to have substantial and regular cargo imports to replace Russian pipeline gas volumes.

The Lubmin floating LNG terminal, which has already been feeding gas into the German grid during commissioning operations since the beginning of January, is the first privately financed LNG terminal in Germany.

The Deutsche ReGas project has three small-scale LNG shuttle tankers working between a floating storage unit (FSU) moored near the Baltic port and a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), the “Neptune”,’ inside the small inner port at Lubmin.

Deutsche ReGas is now planning to install a second floating LNG terminal by the end of 2023 which, alongside a number of potential capacity upgrades, could increase  Lubmin’s import capacity to 13.5 Bcm of natural gas.

“This would make the potential import capacity of the terminal equivalent to over 14 percent of Germany’s 2021 domestic gas consumption, and over a third of Germany’s forecast LNG import capacity in 2024,” added Macquarie.

Excelerate FSRU veteran

Rob Bryngelson, the CEO of of the Macquarie WaveCrest unit based in Houston, noted that that the banks portfolio LNG company was only created in 2021, though has one of the most experienced LNG management teams in the business,

Bryngelson himself is the former CEO of US LNG FSRU specialist Excelerate Energy and he said the team had worked to complete 13 floating LNG import projects over 15 years.

“WaveCrest Energy is pleased to be part of such a technically challenging and economically important project for Germany,” explained Bryngelson.

“We are well positioned to provide smart capital to projects by combining the strength of our owner, Macquarie Capital, with our team’s industry-leading expertise,” he declared.

Stephan Knabe, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche ReGas, noted that the company was gratified to have the support of the Australian bank as wel as WaveCrest.

“We would like to thank Macquarie Capital and the WaveCrest team for supporting our project,” said Knabe.

“With their expertise, they played a significant role in enabling us to officially open the LNG terminal on January 14. We hope for more successful cooperation,” added Knabe.

Nicholas Gole, Senior Managing Director at Macquarie Capital, said he was delighted to work with Deutsche ReGas to help develop a vital new energy supply solution for Germany.

“In these challenging times, we need sustainable, pragmatic, and timely energy solutions, and we will continue to look for opportunities to support other important energy projects like the ‘Deutsche Ostsee’ venture,” stated Gole. 

A leading port services provider S5 Agency World with its global headquarters in London and hub operations from Rotterdam to Singapore, has agreed a contract with Deutsche ReGas GmbH, the operator of the German Baltic sea LNG import terminal at Lubmin.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz formally opened the nation’s second liquefied natural gas terminal since its reliance on Russian pipeline gas came to a close in 2022 and fast-track developments have been made possible due to the support and know-how in particular of French and Dutch energy and shipping companies.

Jan 13 (LNGJ) - TotalEnergies said an official inauguration ceremony would be held on Saturday, January 14, for the floating LNG import terminal at the Baltic port of Lubmin and attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to mark commissioning. The floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), the “Neptune”, was chartered from TotalEnergies by the Lubmin project developers, a private company called Deutsche ReGas GmbH.

   “The vessel has an annual regasification capacity of 5 billion cubic metres of gas, enough to cover about 5 percent of German demand,” said the French major. “Following Deutsche ReGas’s open season procedure in October 2022 TotalEnergies also contracted regasification capacity of 2.6 Bcm per year and began to deliver LNG from its global integrated portfolio to the Lubmin terminal,” added TotalEnergies.