German LNG Open Season Starts

Dutch global terminals developer Vopak, transmission system operator Gasunie and Oiltanking started January 17 the open season for shippers to bid for capacity in a planned LNG import terminal in northern Germany.

Depending on responses, the trio may proceed to the next stage, calling for firm bids, on the basis of which a final investment decision can be taken.

Gasunie had announced late November that the open season would start this month for the proposed 5bn m³/yr terminal, capable of receiving Q-Flex LNG carriers of up to 210,000 m³.

The partners are in the process of establishing the joint venture, German LNG Terminal GmbH, which would build, own and operate the import terminal at Brunsbuttel on Germany's North Sea coast. It will also provide LNG distribution services to facilitate access to it as an alternative low-emission fuel for ships and trucks.

Brunsbuttel is favoured for its proximity to Hamburg – where Oiltanking was founded – and its industrial hinterland and the Kiel Canal gives it easy access to Scandinavia and the Baltic States. In July 2017, the three companies received EU anti-trust approval to establish a joint venture. Subject to, among others, the outcome of the open season, they envisage starting construction of Germany's first LNG terminal after final investment decision in 2019, to be ready for operations in 4Q 2022. The terminal would offer discharge and loading of LNG ships, storage of LNG, regasification and send out into the natural gas network, plus LNG distribution via trucks and barges.

E.ON considered such a terminal at Wilhelmshaven, also on the German North Sea coast, several times since the 1970s. But the project never came to anything.