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The 170,000-cbm FSRU Hoegh Gannet, which serves the Elbehafen LNG import terminal Brunsbüttel, started supplying regasified LNG to the German grid on March 22, 2023 as part of the commissioning phase.
Hoegh Gannet can regasify up to 750 mmscfd. It received its first LNG tanker on February 14 last year from UAE’s Adnoc and the second tanker from the US on April 22.
Earlier this year, the FSRU reached a record sendout rate of 121.5 GWh/d since its launch due to the commissioning of the Gasunie ETL 180 pipeline.
“Expressed in energy volumes, we expect the Hoegh Gannet to have fed in around 21 terawatt hours in 2024, including the planned load by the end of December,” a DET spokesman told LNG Prime.
“Factorized to the shorter time on the grid in 2023 (commissioning in March 2023), we therefore see around 20 percent more sendout in Brunsbüttel this year,” he said.
Hoegh Gannet is currently located at the Brunsbüttel Port’s existing dangerous goods berth in Brunsbüttel’s Elbehafen port, but it will be relocated to a new dedicated jetty.
In April this year, Brunsbüttel Ports officially started building the jetty which will host Hoegh Gannet.
The new jetty is being built to the west of Hoegh Gannet’s current location.
Two more FSRU terminals to come online
In January last year, the German government established DET to manage FSRU-based LNG import terminals.
Besides the facility in Brunsbüttel, DET operates the Wilhelmshaven 1 terminal, which features the 170,000-cbm FSRU Hoegh Esperanza.
In August, DET announced that it has received in total of 100 LNG cargoes at its two FSRU-based LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel since January 2023.
Moreover, DET recently said it now expects to launch its next two FSRU-based LNG import terminals in Stade and Wilhelmshaven in January 2025.
The company’s third LNG import facility in Stade features the 174,000-cbm FSRU Energos Force.
In March this year, the 2021-built FSRU, owned by Apollo’s Energos Infrastructure, arrived at the AVG jetty in Stade.
Once operational, the almost 300-meter-long ship will feed up to 5 bcm of gas per year into the German gas network.
DET previously said it expects commissioning to start at its second terminal in Wilhelmshaven with a capacity of about 4 bcm per year during the second half of this year.
Excelerate’s 138,000-cbm FSRU Excelsior arrived at the Navantia yard in El Ferrol, Spain last year for a planned stopover before its job in Wilhelmshaven. According to its AIS data, the FSRU is still located there.
Unlike the three other FSRU-based terminals, the jetty for the second Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal is located offshore Wilhelmshaven.
In addition to these four facilities, private LNG terminal operator Deutsche ReGas launched commercial operations in September at its FSRU-based LNG terminal in the German port of Mukran.
This terminal, with a capacity of 13.5 bcm, is the largest LNG import facility in Germany, and it features two FSRUs, Energos Power and Neptune.