LNG terminal operator Deutsche ReGas expects to launch its FSRU-based LNG import facility in Germany’s port of Mukran by the end of this winter.
“As planned and announced, the “Deutsche Ostsee” Energie-Terminal in the industrial port of Mukran will go into operation until the end of this winter, subject to approval,” a spokesman for Deutche ReGas told LNG Prime on Tuesday.
He said that Deutsche ReGas is currently waiting for “permission of early start” (BImSchG), which would allow a test operation of the terminal.
Initially, regasification would take place via the 2021-built 174,000-cbm, Transgas Power, which would later be supplemented by the 2009-built 145,000-cbm, Neptune, the spokesman said.
“FSRU Energos Power’s usage as LNG carrier is intermediate until “Deutsche-Ostsee” Energie-Terminal’s finalization,” he said.
In June last year, the German firm led by Ingo Wagner and Stephan Knabe signed a deal with the German government to sub-charter the vessel delivered in 2021 by Hudong-Zhonghua.
Deutsche ReGas took over the charter of Energos Power in October and the vessel has been working as an LNG carrier since then.
In the meantime, the FSRU, previously named Transgas Power, changed its owner as Greece’s Dynagas sold the vessel to US-based Energos Infrastructure, owned by asset manager Apollo.
Energos Power’s AIS data showed on Wednesday that the FSRU was located in Denmark’s Fredericia after arriving there from the Dutch port of Rotterdam during the weekend.
Up to 13.5 bcm per year
This FSRU with a regas capacity of up to 7.5 bcm per year will work along the FSRU Neptune in Mukran as part of the second phase of the LNG terminal with a capacity of up to 13.5 bcm per year.
Deutsche ReGas previously said it plans to move the FSRU Neptune from Lubmin to the Mukran port later this year.
The firm officially launched its Lubmin FSRU-based LNG import terminal, first private LNG terminal in Germany, in January last year.
Deutsche ReGas chartered the 2009-built 145,000-cbm, FSRU Neptune, from French energy giant TotalEnergies for this project.
Besides the two FSRUs, the Mukran project includes the 50-kilometer-long pipeline Ostsee Anbindungsleitung (OAL).
Germany’s Gascade built this pipeline which connects the LNG terminal in the port of Mukran with the German gas transmission network in Lubmin.
Gascade said in January that the pipeline had fully been connected through and laid on the seabed.
The firm said that that the mechanical completion of the pipeline enables first gas feed-ins into this pipeline in the winter of 2023/24.