Germany still in the dark about LNG supplies to its new terminals

While Germany is building up an infrastructure to receive liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its North and Baltic Sea coasts in record time, there continues to be uncertainty about where the supplies will come from, reports Nora Marie Zaremba in Tagesspiegel Background. In the reply to a parliamentary inquiry by the opposition party CDU, seen by Tagesspiegel, the economy ministry said that there was a memorandum of understanding with energy companies RWE, Uniper and EnBW about supplying two new floating LNG terminals from this winter. However, the selection of the suppliers as well as the conclusion of the contracts to fulfil these obligations will be the responsibility of the companies themselves, writes the ministry. “The Federal Government therefore has no knowledge of the origin of the LNG to be landed in Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven from next winter,” the government wrote.

ICIS analyst Andreas Schröder told Tagesspiegel that there have apparently not been any new contracts by German gas importers. The companies themselves have disclosed little. Uniper said it would only talk about supply contracts once the terminal project was finalised. It said it could not comment on whether shipments from a recent supply deal with Australian Woodside would land at the upcoming Wilhelmshaven terminal next year. EnBW also has no new contracts to report. The company told Tagesspiegel that it was examining the opportunities available on the market for the procurement of LNG volumes, and that it still intended to fully utilise import capacity next year.

The war against Ukraine has put efforts to diversify Germany’s gas supply away from Russian deliveries at the top of the agenda. As part of these efforts, the government is going full steam ahead in supporting the build-up of the country’s own import infrastructure for liquefied natural gas (LNG). During a trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by chancellor Olaf Scholz, RWE had agreed on a deal to have one single shipment of LNG arrive in Germany at the turn of the year.