LNG

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.

The German Federal Government enjoyed full public support for floating LNG terminals fast-tracked in 2022 and early 2023 for North Sea, Elbe River and Baltic port projects, though is now facing opposition for a fifth out of six proposed floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) to be deployed at Rügen, Germany’s largest island in the Baltic Sea.

German LNG Terminal GmbH, the development company of the onshore import facility at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River south of the port of Hamburg and adjacent to the Kiel Canal, has signed up three leading energy companies as long-term foundation customers for regasification capacity.

German LNG Terminal, the Dutch-led joint venture developing a planned liquefied natural gas import terminal at Brunsbuettel on the Elbe River near Hamburg, expects to make an investment decision soon after binding import contracts have been finalised at the end of 2020.

RWE, Germany’s largest utility and power producer and whose headquarters are in the city of Essen, confirmed that it had secured potentially 5 billion cubic metres of import capacity at Brunsbuettel as it also seeks a wider role for the facility.

“Currently the parties are in the final phase of negotiating fully binding legal contracts for LNG imports,” said RWE and German LNG Terminal in a joint statement.

“RWE and German LNG expect this process to be finalised by the end of 2020, putting German LNG in a position to reach a positive investment decision shortly thereafter,” it added.

German LNG Terminal is a venture comprising Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, German tank storage provider Oiltanking GmbH, and Dutch storage company Royal Vopak.

Gasunie and Vopak were the development companies behind the Dutch Gate LNG terminal at the port of Rotterdam.

RWE added that LNG import terminals like Brunsbuettel could also be combined with entry points for (liquid) hydrogen produced in other regions of the world where wind and solar energy are available at larger scale and lower cost than in Germany.

“Existing gas pipelines connected to the LNG terminal are perfectly fit to distribute hydrogen locally,” said RWE.

Javier Moret, Global Head of LNG at RWE Supply & Trading GmbH, said his company was an advocate of LNG.

“It can provide Germany with clean and affordable energy today and at the same time contribute to reducing emissions in the maritime and road transport sector as an alternative fuel,” added Moret.

“At the same time we want to make sure we are prepared for the next technological advancement. In the future hydrogen will play a key role as a climate-neutral fuel in the energy mix,” he explained.

“We are prepared for this next step with the new agreement. Therefore we are happy to support German LNG Terminal’s initiative in this field,” stated Moret.

Currently the parties are in the final phase of negotiating fully binding legal contracts for LNG imports.

RWE and German LNG expect this process to be finalised by the end of 2020, putting German LNG in a position to reach a positive investment decision shortly thereafter.

Another German utility, Uniper, is backing a second German import project at the deepwater North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven using a floating storage and regasification unit.
Uniper has said it expected that a competitive tender process would be conducted in the months ahead to seek binding accords with potential customers

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.

Wintershall DEA of Germany would become the leading independent oil and gas producer in Europe when the merger is completed by mid-2019 between Wintershall and Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA), with operations stretching from Argentina’s Shale Basin to Russia, though unusually for an energy company of its size with no presence in the LNG sector.

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.

German energy utility RWE has signed a fully termed and binding LNG supply agreement with Australian LNG plant operator Woodside Petroleum with the primary shipments coming from Woodside’s contracted volumes booked at the US Corpus Christi LNG export plant in Texas.

German energy utility RWE has signed a cooperation accord with Tokyo Gas of Japan on procurement of liquefied natural gas as well as trading and shipping activities.

Fluxys, the Belgian natural gas network operator and owner of the Zeebrugge LNG import terminal, and Russian Yamal LNG export plant majority stakeholder Novatek have signed a land lease agreement to build and operate an LNG terminal in the northeast German port of Rostock.