The 174,000-cbm FSRU Energos Force will complete one LNG delivery and a short visit to a yard prior to its deployment in Germany’s Stade, according to state-owned Deutsche Energy Terminal.
In December, the FSRU left Germany’s Bremerhaven and since then it has been serving as an LNG carrier.
The 2021-built FSRU, which was recently purchased by Apollo’s Energos Infrastructure from Dynagas, was on Tuesday morning sailing in the English Channel. The unit is loaded with a cargo from Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu plant in the US, according to its AIS data.
A spokesman for DET told LNG Prime that Energos Force, previously known as Transgas Force, will deliver this shipment to the DET-operated FSRU-based terminal in Brunsbüttel.
“It will then travel to Rotterdam before being deployed as FSRU in Stade in mid-March,” he said.
In Rotterdam, minor work will be carried out to “convert the ship from cargo operation to FSRU operation,” the spokesman said.
Following completion of the work in Rotterdam, the FSRU will head to Stade.
“Current planning is that the vessel receives its commissioning cargo in Stade,” the spokesman said.
The Stade FSRU-based LNG terminal will have a capacity of some 6 bcm per year and will be in the future replaced by Hanseatic Energy Hub’s planned onshore LNG import terminal.
In December, German port firm Niedersachsen Ports (NPorts) completed the new LNG jetty in Stade which will welcome the FSRU.
German FSRUs
Besides this terminal in Stade, DET is working to launch the second FSRU-based facility in Wilhelmshaven with a capacity of about 4 bcm per year.
DET previously told LNG Prime that the company expects commissioning to start at the second Wilhelmshaven terminal at the end of the second quarter of 2024.
Excelerate’s FSRU Excelsior is still located at the Navantia yard in El Ferrol, Spain for a planned technical stop ahead of the start of its job in Wilhelmshaven.
Following the launch of these two LNG terminals, DET will operate four FSRU-based LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven, Brunsbüttel, and Stade.
In addition to these state-backed terminals, Deutsche ReGas officially launched its Lubmin FSRU-based LNG import terminal, first private LNG terminal in Germany, in January last year.
The firm just kicked off commissioning activities at its LNG import facility in Germany’s port of Mukran with the arrival of the 2021-built 174,000-cbm, Energos Power.
In June last year, Deutsche ReGas signed a deal with the German government to sub-charter the FSRU delivered in 2021 by Hudong-Zhonghua.
This FSRU, owned by Energos Infrastructure, will work in Mukran along the FSRU Neptune, which is currently in Lubmin and will later this year sail to Mukran to serve the second phase of the LNG terminal with a capacity of up to 13.5 bcm per year.