LNG

WINGAS GmbH, a former subsidiary in Germany of Russia’s Gazprom, has now been rebranded as a part of the SEFE Energy group, which is a business active in LNG import terminals, trading and portfolio management, transportation and storage of energy and is fully owned by the Federal Government of Germany.

The SEFE name comes Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE) GmbH, previously called Gazprom Germania and which came under German control and had its name changed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and subsequent sanctions and the shutting off of the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Germany.

The SEFE company also controls Germany’s largest gas storage facility and has capacity through the utility Uniper at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven and at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River.

SEFE also has a stake in Germany’s proposed fifth LNG import terminal at the port of Stade, also located on the Elbe between Hamburg and Cuxhaven.

The German Government acquired all the shares in SEFE in November 2022 and thus became the sole owner of the group of Gazprom companies in Germany.

LNG supply deals

US LNG exporter Venture Global LNG and SEFE have signed a long-term Sales and Purchase Agreement.

Under the agreement, SEFE’s subsidiary, WINGAS GmbH, will purchase 2.25 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Venture Global’s CP2 project to be located next to the existing Calcasieu Pass plant.

SEFE has additionally signed an accord to receive future volumes from Oman.

“This rebranding marks a significant milestone for SEFE, as it brings all of the group’s sales businesses together under one identity across Europe,” said SEFE.

Over the past 30 years, WINGAS has established itself as one of the leading natural gas suppliers in Europe.

Based in the German city of Kassel and with a strong presence across Germany, the company supplies energy-intensive customers across Europe, including municipal utilities, regional gas suppliers, industrial companies and power plants.

In addition to WINGAS’s existing sales business, SEFE Energy also provides gas, electricity, and low carbon energy products to customers in the UK, France, and the Netherlands.

As an integrated sales organisation, SEFE Energy now supplies over 50,000 customers in seven European countries, with a sales volume of around 200 terawatt hours of gas and electricity.

“By leveraging the synergies of our sales teams across Europe, our customers benefit from a more comprehensive offering of energy products and services, helping them achieve their strategic energy goals,” said Matthias Peter, Managing Director of SEFE Energy.

Gasum, the Finnish state-run natural gas company and leading Nordic LNG supplier, delivered a cargo to the floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) deployed in southern Finland to help fill a gap during the current cold spell caused by a key gas pipeline shutdown.

Germany's hydrogen obsession, which has made liquefied natural gas suppliers uneasy and prevented the Germans securing long-term LNG supply contracts, has been brought into focus by a German report saying that hydrogen demand would fall well short of the baseline the country is assuming in its plans to extend its gas network to carry the fuel.                  

Venture Global LNG, the US operator of the Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana and developer of three other export project in the US Gulf Coast state, has signed a 20-year supply deal with the former Gazprom Germania that was taken over by the German Government.

Germany has now nationalized a former subsidiary of Russian natural gas company Gazprom that had already been taken control of by the German authorities in April as part of sanctions and energy security measures after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dynagas LNG Partners, the owner of six LNG carriers and mostly involved in Russian cargo liftings, has confirmed in its latest earnings report that three of its carrier charters are now controlled by the German government because they were under contract to Russian natural gas company Gazprom.