Brunsbuttel LNG construction to start in September
Germany's Schleswig-Holstein state government on July 20 published the development schedule for the planned LNG terminal at the Elbe port town of Brunsbuttel.
The LNG project by Dutch gas infrastructure and transportation company Gasunie is one of four proposed terminals backed by Berlin's €3bn ($3.2bn) funding package for the next decade, as Germany looks to phase out Russian gas.
Gasunie's Brunsbuttel LNG project will have a nameplate annual regasification capacity of 10bn m3 by the time its third phase is completed in 2026, by which point Gasunie's temporary FSRU will have been switched for a land-based LNG terminal.
Gasunie expects to begin construction in September this year with a view of launching the first 3.5bn m3/yr phase at the turn of 2022/23. Brunsbuttel will lack a dedicated LNG jetty when the initial phase launches, and will use the port's hazardous goods berth as a temporary stop gap.
Schleswig-Holstein's minister of energy Tobias Goldschmidt noted German environmental groups had expressed concern about the project, but called Germany's energy supply situation "deadly serious" given the scaling back of Russian gas inflows.
He added: "The gas supply situation in Germany is serious. In this difficult phase, the federal government and the state of Schleswig-Holstein are moving even closer together. Together we create the conditions to further diversify gas procurement in our country. The LNG infrastructure in Brunsbuttel will make an important contribution to getting by without Russian gas in the future.”
A 3 km-long gas transmission line, (ETL) 185, will also be finalised by the end of this year. This should complete the commissioning-stage of the initial phase of the project, allowing 3.5bn m3/yr of natural gas to be fed into the network on average, rising to 5bn m3/yr at peak during winter.
A second phase development due to commence in March 2023 will see the delivery of a purpose-built LNG receiving jetty. This will free up the use of the materials depositor jetty that will be used for LNG receiving purposes in the interim.
The approval procedures for the pier of the LNG terminal's jetty and operation are being fast tracked for completion by 2022-end, but Schleswig-Holstein says it is working "flat out" on this given the project's importance to German energy security.
In the third phase, a new 55-km gas transmission line, (ETL) 180, will be connected from Brunsbuttel to Hetlingen/Stade, allowing an average of 5bn m3/yr of regasified LNG to be dispatched into the German gas transmission grid. ETL 180 is due to be commissioned in December 2023. Furthermore, Gasunie will then look to commission a land-based LNG receiving terminal in four years time, to double the terminal's import capacity.
Goldschmidt added: "It is a complex undertaking, in which we plan several construction projects in parallel - from terminals to the simultaneous construction of two gas pipelines. We want to feed LNG into the German gas grid in the short term and more than double the capacities from the FSRU in the medium term.
"We also have Brunsbuttel Ports GmbH to thank for being able to tackle this ambitious project with such determination. We know that the multi-stage implementation process with its interim solutions is also associated with unreasonable demands on the port's customers. It is encouraging to see how business and politics are tackling this effort together.”
Germany signed binding implementation agreements to charter two FSRUs from Hoegh LNG on May 5 for deployment in the German port of Wilhelmshaven. One is being developed by Uniper with a 10bn m3/yr regasification capacity, while a second from Tree Energy Solutions will bring ashore 2.2bn m3/yr. A fourth 12bn m3/yr terminal by Hanseatic Energy Hub is being developed in Stade.