LNG

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.

VINCI, the French engineering and construction company, said one of its subsidiaries signed a contract to design and build Germany's first onshore liquefied natural gas import terminal at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River south of Hamburg.

The company, based in the Paris suburbs, said the engineering, procurement and construction contract included building the facilities with two storage tanks.

VINCI said the work involved a strategic project for Germany's energy independence and would be carried out by its subsidiary Cobra IS in a consortium with the Spanish LNG terminal specialist Sener Energy Engineering.

“It will have a production capacity of 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year and will have two 165,000 cubic metres storage tanks,” explained VINCI.

“The terminal will be equipped with auxiliary operating systems, infrastructure and other buildings,” it added.

VINCI said the customer was German LNG Terminal GmbH and the terminal when completed would enable Germany to import LNG to be unloaded and injected into the grid system or transported by lorries for off-grid usage or for transportation fuel.

Target date

“The installation is to be delivered in 2026, with the works lasting 42 months,” said VINCI.

The statement added that Cobra IS and Sener had much experience in projects of this kind.

Their combined previous LNG contracts in Europe alone have included terminals at Sagunto in Eastern Spain and Bahía de Bizkaia in the Spanish northwest, as well as the Gate terminal in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Dunkirk LNG in France and the Zeebrugge facility in Belgium.

The German LNG Terminal company was accorded full planning permission in May 2022 by the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck.

Analysts said that due to its location and the industrial connections, the Brunsbüttel site has good prerequisites for developing into an import hub for the northern German economy in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The Brunsbüttel terminal has additionally signed a preliminary accord with Shell to acquire cargo volumes.

The German Government, though the state investment body Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), replaced Dutch storage company Royal Vopak in the shareholder line-up, though the dominant company is still the Dutch utility Gasunie.

The German utility RWE, based in Essen, has also signed an accord to join the Brunsbüttel project.

The development company has said it believed that LNG would become even “greener” in the future and would be a great transition fuel for Germany. 

The Sener engineering and technology group in Spain, known in the LNG industry for being a main contractor on the Dutch LNG import terminal in Rotterdam and other projects, has appointed Gabriel Alarcón, up until now General Manager of Technology and Innovation, as Managing Director of Sener Engineering, the area which handles the company's Infrastructure, Energy and Marine activities worldwide.

Alarcón's career in Sener began in 1995, since which time, apart from a brief interval at France’s ALSTOM, he has held various positions of responsibility in technical departments, project management, engineering management and general management.

Alarcón has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where for the last 16 years he has worked as an associate professor in Aeronautical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Postgraduate programs related to Mechanical Engineering, noise and vibrations.

He also has a postgraduate degree in General Management from the IESE business school.

“While I do of course feel enthusiastic about taking on the new professional responsibilities with which Sener have entrusted me, in the current situation it is a challenge with an extra dose of excitement,” said Alarcón.

“I am proud to take on the role of Managing Director of Sener Engineering. We are faced with several circumstances that represent unique opportunities, and we will take advantage of them,” he added.

“We also have the best team of professionals in Sener’s history, which is an impressive feat. We will renew our purpose in society through engineering and technology,” stated Alarcón.

His most recent achievements as General Manager of Technology and Innovation include the restructuring of the Engineering area, with the launch of the Mobility, Energy and Innovation technology units. Through the last of these three units, Sener Engineering has renewed and driven its understanding of innovation and has accelerated its digitization process.

Sener Engineering's portfolio of high-tech projects covers a wide range of fields and locations

SENER Engineering's portfolio runs from the Gate LNG terminal through other ventures such as the Noor Ouarzazate thermosolar plants in Morocco, the Toluca-Mexico City train project in Mexico and software for the comprehensive design of small warships, known as corvettes, being built in Spain for the Royal Saudi Navy.

On the LNG front, the Gate LNG terminal, which came on line in 2011, recently awarded Sener another contract to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services needed for better maintenance and the improvement of activities in work scheduled for 2021.

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, has chosen four groups to compete for the engineering, procurement and construction contract.