Deutsche ReGas says Lubmin FSU arrives in Germany

Deutsche ReGas, the developer of the LNG import terminal in the port of Lubmin, said on Wednesday that the 137,814-cbm LNG carrier Seapeak Hispania, which will serve as a floating storage unit for the project, had arrived in Germany.

The firm led by Ingo Wagner and Stephan Knabe confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the 2002-built vessel previously loaded a cargo of LNG at Egypt’s Idku plant.

It reached its anchorage in Prorer Wiek, east of the island of Ruegen, early on Wednesday.

Knabe said in the statement that the vessel had loaded about 140,000 cbm of LNG in Egypt, the first LNG shipment for the Lubmin FSRU-based terminal and for eastern Germany.

Seapeak, previously known as Teekay LNG Partners, owns Seapeak Hispania.

Earlier this year, Portugal’s Lisnave completed the vessel’s fourth special survey. The yard installed a ballast water treatment system and rebranded it to new Seapeak colors.

In the future, this vessel will take liquefied natural gas from LNG carriers and store it while smaller carriers will take take the fuel from the FSU and deliver it to the FSRU in Lubmin due to draft restrictions in the area.

The small LNG/ethylene carrier, Coral Furcata, operated by Dutch firm Anthony Veder, also arrived near Mukran earlier this month.

FSRU moved to Lubmin last week

In November, the 2009-built 145,000-cbm, FSRU Neptune, arrived in the Mukran port on the island of Ruegen, where Deutsche ReGas prepared the FSRU in cooperation with the port prior to the unit heading to Lubmin to start providing regasification services.

This included reducing the FSRUs draught from 9.6 meters to around 5.2 meters due to shallow waters in Lubmin and fitting the unit with a pipe adapter to ensure a precise connection of the FSRU to the onshore system.

Deutsche ReGas says Lubmin FSU arrives in Germany
The 145,000-cbm FSRU Neptune in Lubmin (Image: Pronav Ship Management)

Deutsche ReGas moved the FSRU it chartered from TotalEnergies to Lubmin last week.

Hoegh LNG Partners, now 100 percent owned by Hoegh LNG, has a 50 percent stake in this unit, MOL owns 48.5 percent, and Tokyo LNG Tanker has 1.5 percent.

Originally, Deutsche ReGas planned to launch the Lubmin facility on December 1.

However, the firm said in a update released on November 29 that the timeline of the project could change as it still awaits to receive approvals from the local government.

Depending on the approvals, Deutsche Regas said it still could launch the project by the end of December.

The firm did not provide any new information regarding the launch in the latest statement.

Second FSRU-based terminal

The Lubmin facility could become the second operational FSRU-based terminal in Germany.

The arrival of the FSU in Germany comes just days after Uniper and its partners officially launched Germany’s first FSRU-based LNG import facility in Wilhelmshaven.

Germany has in total backed the charters of five FSRUs while the Lubmin facility is the first private project.

German energy firm RWE is also expecting to receive the first commissioning cargo at the Elbhafen FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Brunsbuettel in January.

This government-backed terminal will also feature Hoegh’s vessel, Hoegh Gannet.

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