Germany Plans to Have the World’s Fourth Largest LNG Import Capacity By 2030
Germany plans to have as much as 70.7 million tons per year of LNG import capacity by 2030, which will make Europe’s biggest economy the fourth-largest LNG import capacity holder in the world by the end of this decade, Argus reports, citing plans by the German economy ministry and energy group RWE.
The country no longer receives Russian gas via Nord Stream, which was sabotaged in the autumn of 2022. Even before that, Russia had slashed pipeline flows via Nord Stream, citing Western sanctions that prevented gas turbine maintenance.
Faced with the prospect of no Russian gas this winter, Germany rushed to install floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs). Two of those FSRUs are already operational.
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Germany plans to have a total of 10 FSRUs, some of which will be removed and replaced by onshore regasification facilities once they are built.
The rush to have LNG import terminals as soon as possible will make Germany the fourth largest import capacity holder behind the major Asian LNG buyers South Korea, China, and Japan, according to Argus.
It is important to note that several of these projects are proposals and there is no guarantee they will all be built.
Germany inaugurated its first floating LNG import terminal at Wilhelmshaven a week before Christmas.
In early January, the country welcomed the first tanker carrying LNG at the newly opened LNG import terminal at Wilhelmshaven, with the cargo arriving from the Calcasieu Pass export facility in the United States.
Two weeks later, TotalEnergies said it would supply LNG and is contributing an FSRU to the newly opened Deutsche Ostsee LNG import terminal in Lubmin on the German Baltic Sea coast. TotalEnergies has also contracted regasification capacity of 2.6 billion cubic meters of gas per year and began to deliver LNG from its global integrated portfolio to the Lubmin terminal.
According to President Gas, Renewables & Power at TotalEnergies, Stéphane Michel, “Europe is facing a historic gas supply crisis caused by the sharp drop in flows from Russia. Since the beginning of this crisis, TotalEnergies has mobilised its LNG portfolio, which is broad and flexible, to send available LNG to Europe and to use its 18 Mt/y regasification capacity.
Thanks to the start-up of the Lubmin terminal, TotalEnergies will be able to add to this effort and increase its imports to Europe to over 20 Mt/y, or about 15% of the continent’s regasification capacity. We are pleased to support this project, which will allow Germany and Europe to further secure gas supply.”
Separately, Switzerland-based trader MET Group said last month it had secured binding long-term LNG capacities at the Lubmin terminal.
Last week, Germany welcomed the first shipment of LNG from the Middle East, from Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC, which delivered cargo to the Elbehafen floating LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel. The shipment of 137,000 cubic meters of LNG was the commissioning cargo for the new floating LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel.
