Lagos — Germany’s reliance on Russian gas and the need to find alternate supplies given the current geopolitical situation between the two countries has set Germany on a course to the highest liquefied natural gas (LNG) consumption in Europe.
The country, which previously relied on pipelines from Russia to meet its natural gas needs, is now looking at LNG as an alternative post Ukraine war.
Germany is therefore set to register the highest LNG regasification capacity additions in Europe between 2022 and 2026 and will account for about 36% of the region’s total capacity additions by 2026, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
According to GlobalData’s latest report, “LNG Industry Capacity and CAPEX Forecast by Region and Countries, 2022-2026”, Germany is expected to achieve a total LNG regasification capacity addition of 2.1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) by 2026. Of this, 84% (1.8 tcf) is expected to come from newly built regasification terminals, while the remaining 16% will come from the expansion of existing terminals.
Himani Pant Pandey, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Germany currently doesn’t have active regasification terminals.
It is now mainly focusing on the development of offshore regasification terminals as they can be constructed more rapidly and economically when compared to onshore terminals.
The country even passed an LNG acceleration law, which is aimed at accelerating approvals required for the development of regasification terminals.”
The planned Lubmin Floating terminal, to be operated by Deutsche ReGas, will be the largest contributor to the LNG regasification capacity additions in Germany. The terminal is expected to start operations in 2022 with its initial capacity of 159 billion cubic feet (bcf), increasing to 477 bcf by 2026.
The second largest contributor among the upcoming projects in Germany is the Stade LNG terminal, which will be operated by Hanseatic Energy Hub and is likely to add a capacity of 469 bcf by 2026.
With a capacity of 353 bcf, Brunsbuttel LNG terminal, which will be operated by Nederlandse Gasunie is the third ranked project by highest capacity additions and is expected to come online by 2023.
Follow us on twitter
