Page 7 - GLNG Week 13 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Several steps have
already been taken
to advance proposed
German LNG projects
in the past month.

of Rostock or via the Polish port of Gdansk. The project’s developing consortium is led by Dutch
German and Polish governments are discussing gas grid operator Gasunie, which in March
this option, although Gdansk this week said that signed a memorandum with German state-
supplying Polish refineries would be its priority. owned investment bank KfW on financing.
Germany’s government also noted that deliver- Under the deal, KfW will take a 50% stake in the
ies could be made to German refineries either development.
by truck or train. Just days after Moscow launched its invasion,
Germany has also made progress reducing Germany’s Uniper said it was looking to restart
Russian coal imports, with Habeck estimating work on the terminal in Wilhelmshaven. The
that dependency on Russian imports would fall energy company invited binding bids for the
from 50% to 25% “in the next few weeks.” Under planned facility’s capacity in October 2020, but
the plan, Germany should be “completely inde- the following month said it was considering
pendent of Russian hard coal” by autumn, the building a hydrogen terminal instead, because
minister said. of “market players’ reluctance to make binding
booking for import capacity.” That was before
Gas phase-out Nord Stream 2 was put on hold, however. The developers
The country is also working on phasing out Rus- At Stade, developer Hanseatic Energy Hub
sian gas, “but the process is demanding,” accord- (HEH) invited expressions of interest (EoIs) in of all three
ing to Habeck. It will take until mid-2024 for capacity bookings at the planned terminal on terminals
Germany to be “largely independent” of Russian March 21. HEH held the non-binding phase for
gas, the minister said, and even this will require a capacity interest in February 2021, reporting have said the
focus on reducing consumption at all levels, and good results, but repeatedly delayed holding a
a massive expansion in renewable energy use. binding phase because of market turbulence. facilities could
Russian gas was used to cover 55% of German “The interest in the future German LNG mar-
consumption last year, according to the report, ket is increasingly strong,” HEH managing part- be repurposed for
but this has since fallen to 40%. Since placing ner Johann Killinger said in a statement. “With hydrogen imports
the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in seemingly perma- the expression of interest process starting today,
nent hiatus, the government has announced it we are creating the foundation to quickly carry at a later stage.
will support the development of LNG terminals out the binding open season process. We have
instead. Terminals are planned in Brunsbuettel done our homework, and with our strong part-
(8bn cubic metres per year), Wilhelmshaven ners we are ready to make our contribution to
(9.8 bcm per year) and Stade (12 bcm per year). the diversification of German energy imports.”
At Brunsbuettel, Shell on March 23 signed a Notably, the developers of all three terminals
memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the have said the facilities could be repurposed for
long-term booking of a “substantial” part of the hydrogen imports at a later stage, making it pos-
terminal’s capacity. German energy group RWE sible for them to play a role in the post-natural
is also expected to reserve some capacity. The gas energy mix of Germany.™

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