Uniper Backs Own LNG Terminal for Germany
Uniper CFO Christopher Delbruck told a 3Q results press briefing November 13 of the company's plan to develop a floating LNG import terminal project at a leading German North Sea port.
“We’re also currently exploring how we can facilitate the construction of regasification capacity in Germany. Among various locations currently under discussion for a German LNG terminal, we think Wilhelmshaven is the most suitable. For example, Jade Weser Port – Germany’s only deepwater harbour – gives Wilhelmshaven the perfect infrastructure for handling LNG tankers of all sizes.” (see banner photo of Jade Weser Port, courtesy of the port's owners)
It would be a floating terminal, he said without specifying capacity, so not the costlier onshore project proposed in the 1970s by one of Uniper's predecessor companies Ruhrgas.
“We want to get this project off the ground,” added Delbruck: “We’re in discussions with policymakers and with companies from around the world that are willing to invest and that have the right know-how to make the project a reality at the lowest possible cost. We already know that this project is very, very competitive from a cost perspective. However, there’s still a lot of movement on this topic. As you’ve come to expect from us, we’ll communicate additional details as soon as they’re definite.”
On Uniper’s call to journalists, Delbruck also acknowledged that the topic of Wilhelmshaven had cropped up in its regular discussions with Uniper’s long-standing LNG supplier Qatargas.
He cited also the 5mn mt/yr contract signed 2013 with Pieridae’s Goldboro project on Canada's Atlantic coast. Uniper hopes that volumes under the contract will start to be delivered, subject to Goldboro's FID/development, in the 2020s – equivalent to about 8% of German gas consumption – which the German company says illustrate how it is “working to diversify Europe’s gas supply”.
Uniper’s remarks suggest, in contrast to rival RWE, that it is not actively backing the ‘German LNG’ 5bn m3/yr terminal project at Brunsbuttel on the Elbe estuary that is planned to open end-2022. 'German LNG Terminal' is a joint venture of Dutch firms Gasunie and Vopak with a German partner Oiltanking that is planning to take a final investment decision in late 2019.