Joint managing directors named to push Germans to accept LNG to compete with Russian pipelines
LNG News Editor
Germany’s main onshore liquefied natural gas import terminal project being develop at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River south of Hamburg has changed leadership as the joint venture progresses and executives express confidence on completing the nation's first LNG facility.
The Brunsbüttel development company, German LNG Terminal GmbH, said Managing Director Rolf Brouwer, who was seconded by the Dutch shareholder company, storage giant Royal Vopak, to advance the German terminal is returning to the Vopak group.
Still confident
The joint venture for building and operating the terminal is owned by Vopak, Dutch gas network company Gasunie as well as Oiltanking GmbH, a subsidiary of fuel company Marquard & Bahls AG, based in Hamburg.
“Under Rolf Brouwer’s leadership, a stable project company has been developed which is determined to tackle the future plans,” said German LNG Terminal.
“Our thanks go to Rolf Brouwer and his team for making this project so successful despite the challenging environment caused by the pandemic,” said a statement from the main shareholders signed by Ulco Vermeulen, a board member at Gasunie, René Anghel, Chief Financial Officer of German stakeholder Oiltanking, and Kees van Seventer, President of LNG at Vopak.
Gasunie and Vopak are experienced in the LNG terminal business having developed the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam.
“The foundations have now been laid for the Brunsbüttel project to move with further momentum into the approval procedure phase, followed by its gradual implementation,” added the statement.
As of September 2021, the new managing directors will be the current Head of Finance and Administration Philipp Kroepels, aged 48, and Michael Kleemiss, aged 54, who is already well familiar with the project as a representative of shareholder Gasunie.
Experience
German LNG Terminal said Kleemiss has almost 25 years of experience in the natural gas business both in Germany and in the Netherlands.
He was also Division Manager in the Marketing and Operations Division of the Transmission System Operator, Gasunie Deutschland, and initiated and helped to shape the Germany-wide market area conversion from L-gas to H-gas.
At the moment, he is responsible for Gasunie’s corporate strategy and business development in Groningen.
The statement added that joint managing director Philipp Kroepels has held various commercial and operational management positions in the international energy business for over 15 years in Germany, Southern Europe and the US.
During this time, he was responsible for business development for Brunsbüttel shareholder Oiltanking’s parent company, Marquard and Bahls.
Before joining German LNG Terminal in July 2020, Kroepels worked in the US as managing director of the jet fuel division of Marquard and Bahls.
“It’s important for us that we maintain continuity in our knowledge of the project and that we successfully implement the project,” the shareholding company representatives added.
“With Philipp Kroepels and Dr Michael Kleemiss we have found the ideal candidates,” they declared.
Services
The Brunsbüttel terminal will provide a wide range of services including the loading and unloading of LNG carriers, the temporary storage of LNG, regasification, feeding natural gas into the German natural gas network and distribution of LNG via tank trucks and LNG railcars.
