Germany is also planning a fifth floating LNG terminal that will be operational by the end of 2023

The German government announced today the construction, also in cooperation with the French company Engie, of a fifth floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) station, as Berlin tries to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas.

The new terminal will have a capacity of at least 5 billion cubic meters and is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023, as reported by the Ministry of Economy. It will be built by a consortium involving 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 commissioned in the same area this winter.

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

This is the fifth plan to install a floating station announced by the German government since the start of the war in Ukraine in late 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 go through the winter without much turbulence, but make no mistake (…), there is still a great need to save gas quantities”, added the minister.

Unlike other European countries, Germany has until now not had any regasification station for liquefied natural gas, neither on land nor at sea. The new stations will allow the country to diversify its suppliers, increasing imports from the US, Qatar or even Canada.