LNG

Gaztransport and Technigaz, the French technology designer of LNG maritime and onshore storage systems, has received an order for the tanks to equip the floating storage and regasification unit to be deployed as Germany’s first LNG import terminal at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven.

GTT’s order comes from the South Korean shipyard, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering on behalf of the Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), the owner and operator of the ship.

The FSRU will have a capacity of 263,000 cubic metres and will be fitted with the No. 96 membrane cryogenic containment system, a technology developed by GTT.

The vessel delivery is scheduled for 2023 when it will be deployed at Wilhelmshaven.

“We are delighted to be working with DSME and MOL, two very long-term partners, on this new very large capacity FSRU project,” said Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and Chief Executive of GTT.

MOL and a subsidiary of the German utility Uniper signed a contract in May 2020 to build and charter the FSRU.

The FSRU constitutes the heart of the future terminal and will make it possible to offload, store and regasify LNG for the German market.

It will be moored off the coast not far from Wilhelmshaven and will handle incoming LNG tankers there.

Wilhelmshaven is one of two LNG import terminals being planned by Germany.

The  second is an onshore facility at Brunsbüttel, a port on the Elbe River, south of Hamburg.

The regasified natural gas from the Wilhelmshaven FSRU will be transported along a short connecting pipeline under the sea to the port facilities and be fed into the German gas transmission network.

Wilhelmshaven is Germany's only deep-sea port and has the optimal infrastructure for offloading LNG tankers of all sizes.

Uniper has said it expected that a competitive tender process would be conducted in the months ahead to seek binding accords with potential customers.