Germany finally orders two floating regasification terminals. But they will be ready late
Eventually Scholz begins to do something useful to solve the Russian gas crisis. The German federal government has signed two memoranda of understanding with the country's main gas companies for the supply of two floating terminals for the import of LNG, liquefied natural gas.
According to Reuters , the agreements with Uniper, RWE and EnBW foresee the delivery of the ships, which are expected to be completed this winter, by March 2024.
"It is an important date in the series of steps we have taken since the beginning of the year to make ourselves independent and less susceptible to blackmail by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, and to equip Germany with a solid and resilient energy infrastructure, in this is the case of gas, ”said Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
LNG became the last resort for energy-hungry Germany as Russia reduced flows through the main natural gas artery supplying the EU's largest economy. Most of it comes from the United States, but Germany has no import terminals for super-refrigerated fuel that must be regasified at the point of entry into the country.
Fixed LNG import terminals take years to build, while floating storage and regasification are much faster to install once construction is complete.
Furthermore, liquid gas can be imported from various sources. Alone the US, the main exporters, would not have the capacity to replace Russia, but with a plurality of suppliers, linked by long-term contracts, the gap can be closed.
The main of these could be Qatar, but the talks between Berlin and Doha ended without an agreement at the beginning of the year because the Qataris insist on long-term contracts and on a clause that would oblige Germany not to resell the gas. which he does not use. Nobody sells LNG without long-term contracts, due to the huge investments required by liquefaction plants.
Germany has filled its stocks by 75%, but it risks not being enough: "If we fail to achieve our goal [of saving 20% gas], there is a serious risk of not having enough gas", Klaus Mueller told the FT earlier this week, which would lead to gas rationing. Also because, in any case, the winter must pass before the new regasification ships arrive.
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The article Germany finally orders two floating regasification terminals. But they will be ready later comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-germania-finalmente-oridna-due-terminali-rigassificatori-galleggianti-ma-saranno-pronti-tardi/ on Tue, 16 Aug 2022 17:37:19 +0000.