Page 4 - GLNG Week 09 2021

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Fluxys signs up for

German LNG project

Hanseatic says it has found the “world-class
industrial partner” it has been searching for

PROJECTS & BELGIUM’S Fluxys has signed up to be an forward to joining our partners in the project and
COMPANIES “industrial partner” at the planned Stade LNG are keen to support the terminal’s development
import terminal in Northern Germany, tak- with our industrial and commercial expertise.”
WHAT: ing the ambitious project a step closer towards Fluxys’ signing up to Stade LNG comes less
Fluxys has agreed to realisation. than a month after the company took a final
become an “industrial Stade LNG is the biggest of several LNG investment decision (FID) on an expansion at
partner” at the Stade import schemes in Germany, which already the Zeebrugge LNG terminal in Belgium. The
LNG import project in has access to a diversified mix of gas supplies facility is currently capable of bringing ashore
Germany. but is looking to strengthen its position as a hub up to 6.6mn tonnes per year of LNG. But its
for central Europe. The terminal is expected to capacity will be raised to 11.3mn tpy by early
WHY: receive up to 12bn cubic metres per year of gas 2024 and 12.6mn tpy by 2026.
It is one of three beginning in 2026. It is also the German termi-
proposed terminals in nal project that is arguably most likely to suc- Projects flounder
Germany, a market that ceed at the moment. Germany does not have any LNG import capac-
is already well-supplied While project developer Hanseatic Energy is ity, relying mostly on Russian gas and supplies
with gas. yet to take a final investment decision (FID) on from North Sea fields. But advocates argue that
the scheme, the non-binding phase of an open having a terminal would help lower gas prices
WHAT NEXT: season for the terminal’s capacity that was fin- further, providing a boost to German industry,
The longer Germany’s ished in mid-February confirmed sufficient and enable the country to act as a hub for sup-
LNG projects stall, the market interest, Hanseatic has said. The bind- plies across Central Europe.
less likely it is that ing stage will commence sometime in the next However, developers have struggled to
they will be realised, three months. advance projects, largely owing to difficulties
given growing antipathy Fluxys did not specify exactly how it would finding customers.
towards hydrocarbons in contribute towards Stade LNG. The company’s German energy group Uniper had wanted to
Europe. entry into the project comes after private equity establish a 10 bcm per year LNG import facility
firm Partners Group made an investment in in Wilhelmshaven, but said in November last
Hanseatic in December. year it was considering a hydrogen terminal
“We have been on the lookout for a world- instead. The move came after Uniper invited
class industrial partner to join the develop- binding bids for capacity but got only a tepid
ment and operate the terminal on a long-term response from the market.
basis, and we found that in Fluxys,” Hanseatic’s A joint venture between the Netherlands’
managing director, Manfred Schubert, said in a Gasunie, German tank storage provider Oil-
statement. Fluxys’ involvement will be finalised tanking and Dutch chemical storage firm Vopak
once the default merger clearance procedure is developing a rival 8 bcm per year project in
with competent authorities is completed. Brunsbuettel. The group had aimed to strike a
Hanseatic and Fluxys said they wanted to binding deal with German power firm RWE for
develop a terminal that produces nearly zero the bulk of its capacity by the end of last year,
carbon, using excess heat from local industry but no such deal emerged. Other reservations
for the regasification process. The terminal will were made by Swiss utility Axpo and another
also act as an LNG distribution hub, supplying unidentified company.
LNG via rail, road, small-sized ships and barges. Given the rising antipathy towards natural gas
The terminal’s location in a chemical industry in Europe, it seems likely that the longer Germa-
cluster will also help develop low-carbon gases, ny’s LNG projects stall, the less probable they are
Fluxys said. to be realised. The International Energy Agency
“The Stade LNG terminal is set to be a key (IEA) has said that European gas demand may
enabler of Germany’s energy transition by cre- never again reach the level it did before the pan-
ating an additional energy entry gate for LNG demic. Its import need will continue to grow at a
and low-carbon gases, with clean operations slow pace until 2030, as indigenous production
integrated in the Stade industrial cluster,” Fluxys declines, but that too will diminish in the follow-
CEO Pascal De Buck commented. “We look ing decade.™

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