FSRU for new German LNG terminal

MOL (Mitsui O.S.K. Lines) and LTW (LNG Terminal Wilhelmshaven) have signed a contract to build and charter the FSRU, which will become an LNG terminal at the Niedersachsen Ports-operated Port of Wilhelmshaven. LTW is the project developer and operator behind the future LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven and a fully owned subsidiary of Uniper.

David Bryson, chief operating officer at Uniper, said: “The agreement to build and charter this FSRU is an important milestone for both parties on the journey to establishing an LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven; it underlines the joint desire for collaboration on this ambitious project.”

The FSRU, with 263,000m3 storage capacity, will be built in a shipyard belonging to South Korean company DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering) and then chartered by LTW for 20 years.

It will be moored off the coast not far from Wilhelmshaven and will handle incoming LNG tankers there. The regasified gas will then be pumped from the FSRU along a short connecting pipeline under the sea to the port facilities and finally fed into the German gas transmission network. This eliminates the need to construct complex regasification facilities on land.

This optimised planning will minimize the environmental impact both on land and on the seabed by a non-disruptive crossing of the natural habitat identified in the environmental studies.

In May 2019, an ‘Open Season’ process was launched to assess interest in the LNG terminal project.