LNG

Royal Vopak, the Netherlands-based global storage company with stakes in liquefied natural gas terminals and a new LNG import project for Hong Kong, increased its first-quarter revenues and net profits as it also helped Germany’s LNG import ambitions.

Fluxys, the Belgian natural gas grid company and owner of the Zeebrugge LNG import terminal, has agreed to become a partner and operator for the Hanseatic Energy Hub, the latest German LNG import terminal project to be developed west of the port of Hamburg.

The German Networks Agency (BNA) for electricity, natural gas and telecoms has granted exemption from access and tariff regulations to Germany’s only onshore LNG import terminal being develop at the Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River, south of Hamburg.

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.

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.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French technology firm for designs of systems for the maritime transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas, said it had completed an LNG terminal and bunkering training simulator for the Maritime Training Centre in Hamburg to develop personnel skills before Germany makes its debut as an importer and maritime fuel supplier.

Oct 7 (LNGJ) - Nauticor, the German LNG supplier and a subsidiary of the Linde Group, said it conducted its first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in a German port at the Elbehafen, part of the Brunsbuttel Ports zone where the country's first import terminal will be sited.

Nauticor said the trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) “Scheldt River” received the LNG fuel from the bunker supply vessel “Kairos”, owned by Babcock Schulte Energy and operated on behalf of Nauticor. The dredger “Scheldt River” received 300 cubic metres of LNG as the vessel continues to conduct maintenance dredging works on the Lower Elbe River. 

Uniper, the German energy company and utility, has launched an open season to test interest in Germany's first liquefied natural gas import terminal planned for the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven.

German LNG Terminal, the joint venture company developing the European nation’s first regasification facility at Brunsbuettel on the Elbe River near the port of Hamburg said it had reached another long-term commercial capacity agreement.