LNG

Feb 12 (LNGJ) - Three cargoes are heading for the Netherlands and Germany in the next week. The “Grace Emilia” with 173,955 cubic metres capacity is scheduled to deliver a US cargo to the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam on February 16, according to shipping data. The shipment was loaded on February 4 at the Cove Point plant in Maryland.

   The “Alicante Knusten” with 174,000 cubic metres capacity is due to deliver a US cargo on February 17 to the Rotterdam terminal and which was loaded on February 2 at the Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana. The carrier “Castillo De Caldelas” with capacity of 176,300 cubic metres is scheduled to discharge a shipment on February 19 at the German import terminal at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven. The cargo was lifted on February 2 from the Sabine Pass plant.

The German Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has rejected the first of two appeals brought by farmers in Northern Germany over the temporary confiscation of their land so that natural gas pipelines could be constructed and linked to an existing floating LNG import terminal at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River and a planned onshore terminal nearby.

Contrary to what is suggested in the political discussions, it is hardly the price of gas that increases the price of electricity, themain driver now in the European Union and particularly in Germany is the carbon-dioxide (CO2) price that gas-fired and coal-fired power plants have to pay for their emissions. 

Jan 19 (LNGJ) - Höegh LNG Holdings has signed a second binding 10-year charter deal with the German Federal Government for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and has allocated the vessel “Hoegh Gannet” to the contract. “The vessel ‘Hoegh Gannet’ will be deployed for the Elbehafen LNG project in Brunsbüttel and operated by Deutsche Energy Terminal GmbH,” said Höegh.

   The Elbehafen LNG import project is being developed by Germany utility RWE. Another of the company’s vessels, the “Höegh Esperanza”, was allocated to the project at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven being operated by German utility Uniper. “We are proud to sign the second contract with the Federal Government of Germany for the new LNG import terminal in Brunsbüttel and look forward to starting operations together with RWE,” said Erik Nyheim, the President and Chief Executive of Höegh LNG.

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.

Finnish state-owned company Gasum, the largest liquefied natural gas provider in the Nordic region, said it conducted its first truck-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in Germany.

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.

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.