Deutsche ReGas, the developer of the LNG import terminal in the port of Lubmin, said on Wednesday that Germany’s first FSRU had arrived in the Mukran Port on the island of Ruegen.
The German firm led by Ingo Wagner and Stephan Knabe chartered the 2009-built 145,000-cbm FSRU Neptune from the French energy giant TotalEnergies.
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.
According to a statement by Deutsche ReGas, the firm would prepare the FSRU in cooperation with the Mukran Port prior to the unit heading to the Port of Lubmin to start providing regasification services in December.
This includes reducing the FSRUs draught from the current 9.6 to around 5.2 meters and fitting the unit with a pipe adapter to ensure a precise connection of the FSRU to the onshore system, it said.
With the arrival of the FSRU, all the necessary components are now in place to complete the LNG terminal soon, Knabe said in the statement.
“Commissioning can, of course, only take place take place once all the necessary permits have been obtained,” he said.
Germany’s Federal Network Agency recently exempted the FSRU-based LNG terminal from tariff and network access regulation for 20 years.
Deutsche ReGas also said that firms showed interest to book 15.2 billion cubic meters of capacity at the facility following an open season.
According to the LNG terminal developer, firms booked 3.6 bcm of capacities with terms of five to ten years under the binding open season for the first phase of the project.
Six FSRUs
Should everything go according to plans, this private project in Lubmin would become the first operational FSRU-based facility in Germany.
Germany currently has no regasification facilities but it should start importing LNG later this year or in the beginning of the next via the Uniper-led Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal and RWE’s Elbhafen LNG terminal in Brunsbuettel.
The country’s first LNG jetty was recently completed in Wilhelmshaven, ahead of the arrival of Hoegh LNG’s 2018-built 170,000-cbm, FSRU Esperanza, in December.
Germany backed the charters of five FSRUs, two from Hoegh LNG, two from Dynagas, as well as one from Excelerate Energy.