Update: Since our July 12 article, Gasunie has provided further details of the north German LNG terminal that it is planning with joint venture partners.

The terminal would be relatively substantial, at about one-third of the size of its Gate LNG facility in Rotterdam which is jointly owned with Vopak.

Gasunie told NGW that the subject of the feasibility study is an LNG import and small-scale terminal in north Germany of the following dimensions: 4bn-5bn m³/yr import capacity, with one storage tank of 220,000m³, and one jetty suitable up to Q-Flex vessels (210,000m³), truck-loading, and grid connection. Its spokesman Chris Glerum added: "Based on these key figures we are expecting an investment amount of €400mn-€450mn, with a final investment decision expected to be taken in the second half of 2019."  

Q-Flex are among the largest LNG tankers in the world today, exceeded only by Q-Max ones.

The original article, with details of Gasunie's other two equity partners in the project and its likeliest location in Germany, is as follows.

 

Dutch gas grid operator Gasunie said July 12 it has received European Commission approval for Gasunie, Oiltanking and Vopak to set up joint venture to develop a small-scale LNG terminal in northern Germany, most likely at Brunsbuttel on the Elbe estuary downstream of Hamburg.

 

The three firms are jointly investigating the possibilities for building and operating a multi-service LNG terminal, including import and small-scale services.

No financial investment decisions have been taken yet, said Gasunie, but a feasibility study has been completed and – with the EC approval in place – the three companies are now "ready to jointly work towards the next development phases." The cost and size of the project was not disclosed.

Gasunie and oil tankfarms owner Vopak are already equity partners in the large 12bn m³/yr Gate LNG import terminal at the Port of Rotterdam. Several years ago they were also considering a similar import facility at Eemshaven in the northeast Netherlands, but that project was shelved.

Oiltanking is a subsidiary of German privately-owned oil trader and supplier Marquard & Bahls. 

Nauticor (formerly Bomin Linde), originally an LNG bunkering joint venture of Linde and Marquand & Bahls, but now wholly-owned by Linde, conducted the first bunkering of a German ship with LNG in 2015 at the port of Bremerhaven.

Mark Smedley