LNG

Equinor, the Norwegian energy company and the main pipeline natural gas supplier to the UK and the European Union, has brought online the world’s largest offshore wind farm as part of a joint venture development.

Centrica plc, the UK owner of the British Gas utility business and a liquefied natural gas importer, has signed a long-term LNG supply agreement with US export plant developer Delfin Midstream Inc.

Deutsche ReGas GmbH, the German owner of the floating LNG terminal at the Baltic port of Lubmin, and German Transmission System Operator, Gascade GmbH, are organising a “town hall” event to try and clear the way for the fifth out of six proposed floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) to be deployed off Mukran Port on Rügen, Germany’s largest island in the Baltic Sea.

The Ministry of Economics is determined that at least one of the six government-chartered FSRUs be deployed at Rügen, near Lubmin, before winter 2023 to handle an additional five billion cubic metres per annum of regasified LNG .

The plans call for import facilities to be established off the southeast cost of Rügen several kilometres from the resorts of Sassnitz and Ostseebad-Blinz.

This Rügen FSRU plan has led to opposition and some demonstrations from locals backed by Green party activitists who believe that the replacement energy sources for halted Russian pipeline gas would harm the tourist industry on the island in what was a part of the former East Germany.

Deutsche Regas and Gascade have called the public meeting for the town of Ostseebad-Binz on June 20 as imports are due to start before the end of the year.

Progress

As part of efforts to replace lost Russian pipeline gas supplies, the German government has been installing LNG terminals along its coast with the first to start operations in January 2023 being the Deutsche Regas terminal at Lubmin.

The facilities at Lubmin are about 40 nautical miles from Sassnitz and Mukran port that are part of the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

As 2023 has progressed, Berlin has inaugurated several other FSRUs at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven and at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River.

The floating LNG terminals import gas mainly from the US and Qatar and the volumes are delivered into the German energy grid and beyond.

There are also plans for some of the FSRUs to be replaced by permanent onshore regasification facilities as in Brunsbüttel.

Deutsche Regas has advertised the town hall-style gathering on its Web site proclaiming “citizen information event about the LNG terminal in Mukran”.

The event has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 20, at 5 pm local time at the Kurhaus-Saal venue near Schillerstraße in Ostseebad-Binz.

“All are welcome and a project presentation will start at 5:45 pm followed by a questions and answers session with the end of the event scheduled for 7:00pm,” said Deutsche Regas and Gascade in their invitation.  

Open Season June 29

Deutsche Regas is trying to clear the way for the June 29 Open Season launch for Phase II capacity of the LNG terminal expansion to Mukran port.

“In Phase II, it is planned to operate the floating LNG terminal consisting of two FSRUs in the port of Mukran from December 2023 and to connect it to the gas pipeline network via a new connecting line between Mukran and Lubmin,” explained Deutsche Regas in a statement.

“In Phase II, the planned annual throughput capacity for natural gas is up to 13.5 billion cubic metres,” it added.

Gascade was involved in helping with the development of the Deutsche Regas FRSU terminal at Lubmin.

In just a few weeks, Gascade completed the pipeline link to the gas landfall at Greifswald with connections to the NEL (North European Natural Gas Pipeline), OPAL (Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung) and EUGAL (European Gas Pipeline Link) connections to the gas grids of the rest of Germany and the European Union.

The US Government expects liquefied natural gas exports to increase in 2023 and 2024 but in the short term during April and May there would be slight declines in the nation’s natural gas output because of pipeline maintenance.

Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 vessels and several chartered to the largest US exporter Cheniere Energy, reported lower fourth-quarter net income and revenues from a year ago though expects an increase in revenues for all of 2023 even amid off-hires for four ships undergoing surveys.

Jan 17 (LNG) – Three LNG cargoes are heading for the UK Isle of Grain import terminal at the end of January from the US Gulf Coast as prices at the UK National Balancing Point dropped to a 17-month low of $16.70 per million British thermal units, a level last seen on September 2, 2021. The “BW Pavilion Aranda” with capacity of 173,400 cubic metres is scheduled to deliver a cargo on January 28 from the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana and that was lifted on January 15, according to shipping data. Two other cargoes are being delivered from the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana.

   The 173,600 cubic metres capacity “Stena Crystal Sky” is scheduled to berth on January 29 at the Medway River terminal to discharge its Louisiana shipment and the third cargo heading for the Kent terminal is scheduled to arrive on January 31 onboard the “Ribero Duero Knutsen” with 173,400 cubic metres of capacity.

Centrica plc, the UK owner of the British Gas utility business and an LNG importer, said in a trading update that it continued to deliver a strong operational performance from its balanced portfolio.

An investigation is under way into the explosion at the Freeport liquefied natural gas export plant at Quintana Island in Texas that could reduce US Gulf Coast cargo shipments for up to three weeks, though the overall damage was now said to be limited.

China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, an affiliate of China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC), has won a contract from Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) to build six LNG carriers.

The US Department of Energy has just published its latest liquefied natural gas export data with the average overall price for the six plants declining to under $6.00 per million British thermal units and as China started to overtake Mexico in overall deliveries while more supplies reached South America and smaller nations like Malta and Lithuania.