State-owned LNG terminal operator Deutsche Energy Terminal will launch new capacity auctions for its FSRU-based facilities in Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven after it did not receive any bids in the latest marketing round.
In the three marketing rounds issued in May, which took place between June 13 and July 3, DET has offered short-term products for 2025, as well as long-term products for the years 2025-2029 for regasification capacities at the Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven 1 LNG terminals.
“These products were not marketed. Generally, marketing rounds without bids are not unusual and part of market behavior,” a DET spokesperson told LNG Prime on Thursday.
“This outcome did not come as a surprise to us. The low gas prices in Europe currently offer little incentive for importing LNG. At the moment, cargoes are preferably routed to Asia due to the price situation,” the spokesman said.
As a regulated, federally owned company, DET implements the price specifications of the German Federal Network Agency. Non-regulated companies, on the contrary, are free to set their prices.
In addition, the DET terminals are subject to EU competition law when it comes to pricing.
“These factors combined have led to the expected low market interest in the current marketing round,” DET’s spokesman said.
DET to offer capacities again in “due course”
The spokesman said DET will offer capacities again in “due course”.
This also applies to capacities at the Stade and Wilhelmshaven 2 FSRU-based terminal, which are scheduled to go into operation in the second half of 2024.
“And we must not forget that it is DET’s task is to strengthen the security of supply in Germany and for our European neighbors,” he said.
“To achieve this, not just a specific capacity utilization, but most of all the availability of LNG import capacity is and will remain of decisive importance and has already made a noticeable contribution to calming the market,” the spokesman said.
LNG terminals
Last month, DET said that its FSRU-based LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel has achieved a record sendout rate since the commissioning of the facility in March last year.
DET said at the time that “121.5 GWh/d have been delivered from Hoegh Gannet as daily average rate into the German grid so far this month.”
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.
The Wilhelmshaven 1 terminal also features a Hoegh LNG FSRU. The unit in question is the 170,000-cbm FSRU Hoegh Esperanza.
Moreover, DET recently told LNG Prime that it expects to receive the first cargo at its FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Stade in the second half of this year.
In March, the 2021-built 174,000-cbm FSRU, Energos Force, owned by Apollo’s Energos Infrastructure, arrived at the AVG jetty in Germany’s Stade.
DET also expects commissioning to start at the its second terminal in Wilhelmshaven 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 prior to its job in Wilhelmshaven. The FSRU is still located there.