OUR German government announced the construction of the fifth floating station in cooperation with the French company Engie liquefied natural gas (LNG)as Berlin tries to reduce its dependence on Russia natural gas.

The new terminal will have a throughput capacity of at least 5 billion cubic meters and is expected to be put into operation in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Ministry of Economy. It will be built by a consortium that will include France’s Engie, Belgium’s TES and Germany’s EON.

The floating storage and gasification unit (FSRU), which will be leased by the German government, will be installed in the port of Wilhelmshaven in the North Sea. A similar station will be put into operation in the same area this winter.

“We are reducing our dependence on Russian natural gas by rapidly building new infrastructure,” Economics Minister Robert Hambeck explained at a press conference.

This is the fifth floating station plan announced by the German government since the start of the war in Ukraine at the end of February. Private companies are promoting two other similar plans.

The first two stations will start operating in December.

These efforts “will allow us, if everything goes well (…), to spend the winter without much shock, but do not hesitate (…), there is still a great need to save gas volumes,” the minister added.

Unlike other European countries, Germany has not yet had LNG regasification stations either onshore or offshore. The new stations will allow the country to diversify its suppliers by increasing imports from the US, Qatar and even Canada.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}