Today, the German government concluded a landmark deal to ease winter gas shortages

According to the contract signed with Uniper, RWE and EnBW/VNG, these floating units will be built in Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven and will be operational already from winter, they are expected to operate until March 2024. According to the plans, Germany’s first fixed LNG receiving terminal and a reprocessing unit to replace these two mobile units will be ready by then.

Both solutions are essentially aimed at mitigating dependence on Russian gas in the short to medium term, based on LNG delivered by sea from other directions. According to the plans, the combined capacity of the floating units will be 12.5 billion cubic meters per year, which is 13% of Germany’s gas consumption last year. Reuters.

Until now, Germany did not have an LNG receiving station and relied solely on pipeline gas imports, risks well exposed by restricted Russian supplies due to the Russo-Ukrainian war. Now, the total German gas storage capacity is known to be 77% to upload with accelerated storage, but this is only sufficient for 19% of annual German gas consumption. This German gas supply situation, which seems to be extended in the second half of winter, may be eased by the fact that ships with liquefied gas from different parts of the world will start arriving at the two floating LNG receiving units on the North Sea coast.

Cover image source: Getty Images