Page 5 - GLNG Week 17 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

originally Dutch gas firm Gasunie, German bcm per year facility. And a final investment
storage Oiltanking and Dutch storage group decision (FID) is anticipated next year, although
Vopak. But Vopak said in November 2021 that it could well be brought forward. However, the
it was quitting. German government has not explicitly referred
In a turn of fate, however, the project secured to Stade LNG in terms of its support.
backing from German energy group RWE in The developer is Hanseatic Energy Hub,
early March. RWE, Gasunie and state devel- whose shareholders include Belgium’s Fluxys,
opment bank KfW signed a memorandum of Switzerland’s Partners Group and Ham-
understanding (MoU) under which KfW would burg-based Buss Group. Planning approval
take a 50% stake in the facility and RWE 10%, is currently being sought for the €800mn
implying the pair will put forward the majority ($877mn) project.
of financing. If all three terminals were completed, Ger-
The 10 bcm per year Wilhelmshaven LNG many would be able to cut Russian gas supply by
project, backed by Germany’s Uniper, is also 30 bcm per year by the late 2020s. But given that
seeing a revival. Uniper has said recently it is still Russia currently meets a third to a half of Ger-
prepared to pursue the project, even though in man gas demand, which amounts to 86.5 bcm
the past it failed to secure sufficient interest in per year, even this is not enough on its own to cut
capacity bookings. The facility will be “hydro- gas ties with Moscow. But the government hopes
gen-ready,” according to Uniper, giving it a role to import additional volumes from Norway, and
to play in the German energy transition. ramp up LNG imports indirectly via neighbour-
Wilhelmshaven is a deepwater port on ing countries.
Germany’s North Sea coast, further west than The government also wants to cut gas con-
Brunsbuettel, and needs only a 30-km pipeline sumption by increasing energy efficiency and
to be built for it to be linked with the national replacing some supplies with green hydrogen.
gas grid. But with the ongoing phase-out of nuclear
The third, and largest, of Germany’s LNG and coal power, and uncertainties about green
projects is Stade LNG, situated further down the hydrogen’s feasibility and how quickly the mar-
Elbe, although still with the capacity to receive ket for the fuel will emerge, it might do better to
Q-max LNG carriers. A non-binding round for consider additional LNG import terminals if it
capacity that took place in February last year is serious about bringing Russian imports down
indicated there was enough interest in the 12 to zero.™

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