Germany’s quest to build up LNG import capacity has intensified as it seeks to end reliance on Russian pipeline gas after Russia invaded Ukraine last year

Pending the provision of fixed terminals, it is using floating storage and reception units (FSRUs) to help replace piped Russian gas supply.

Three FSRUs are working at Wilhelmshaven, Brunsbuettel and Lubmin after Germany arranged their charter and onshore connections in record time. Wilhelmshaven, Mukran and Stade are due to add more ships for the 2023/24 winter.

Industry and the government are also building up terminal capacity in anticipation of increased use of hydrogen, which when produced using renewable energy can help the transition to a lower carbon economy.

MUKRAN

Deutsche ReGas has sub-chartered a second FSRU from Transgas Power, with regasification capacity of 7.5 billion cubic metres (bcm), in a fresh step towards building up a new terminal at Mukran in the Baltic Sea.

LNG from Mukran is meant to flow to onshore grids via the nearby port of Lubmin from next winter. The project has triggered some local opposition.

WILHELMSHAVEN

Utility Uniper launched Germany’s first FSRU operations last December at the deep-water port on the North Sea.

It plans to add a land-based ammonia reception terminal and cracker in the second half of this decade. Ammonia is sometimes used as a carrier for hydrogen, whose low density otherwise makes its transportation over long distances complicated.

Tree Energy Solutions (TES) will operate a second FSRU from later in 2023 for five years, and plans to eventually convert the operations to clean gases.

LUBMIN

The FSRU Neptune, chartered by Deutsche ReGas, began receiving LNG at Lubmin early this year. The gas is delivered to another storage vessel, the Seapeak Hispania, and shuttled to Lubmin in a set-up taking account of shallow water.

ReGas holds long-term supply deals with France’s TotalEnergies and trading group MET.

The government wants the Neptune to move to Mukran, allowing the Seapeak Hispania to depart, and joining a second FSRU there, the Transgas Power. ReGas is tendering for LNG supplies to Mukran.

However, gas grid company Gascade needs to link Mukran via Lubmin to the mainland gas grids, making it hard to narrow down the likely start date of the project more closely than to the three months from December to February next year.

BRUNSBUETTEL

The Brunsbuettel FSRU, operated by RWE’s trading arm on the North Sea coast, became operational in mid-April.

It is the forerunner of a land-based LNG facility, now in receipt of a parcel of approved state support, that could start operations at the end of 2026, when an adjacent ammonia terminal could also start up. State bank KfW, Gasunie and RWE are stakeholders and Shell has committed itself to sizeable purchases.

The total costs for the land-based terminal are 1.3 billion euros.

STADE

The inland port on the river Elbe in January started work on a landing pier for an FSRU, to be ready in the winter of 2023/24. Designated vessel Transgas Force is now moored at Bremerhaven port to be fixed up for the purpose.

Project firm Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH) also plans a land-based terminal where it has allocated regasification capacity that could be operational in 2027, including volumes for state-controlled Sefe and utility EnBW.

It has begun sounding out the market to determine whether the longer-term plans should be based largely on ammonia to be reconverted into clean hydrogen. It has identified a construction consortium.

HEH is backed by gas network company Fluxys, investment firm Partners Group, logistics group Buss and chemicals company Dow.

EnBW, which is also a buyer at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuettel, said it would double annual purchases to 6 bcm.

($1 = 0.9116 euros)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Jan Harvey)

https://www.naturalgasworld.com/germany-builds-up-lng-import-terminals-106486

Canadian gas drillers have often suffered from low prices because of constrained export options, and Tourmaline has been a leader in devising new routes to market its output. The company earlier this year began selling the first significant amount of Canadian gas contracted for markets beyond North America.

“We are the largest gas producer and a low-cost potential supplier, and we’re investment grade,” Tourmaline CEO Michael Rose said of his company’s contribution to the Ksi Lisims project, planned for the far northern end of Pearse Island on Portland Canal, during a call with analysts on Thursday. “We’re excited, and we’re going to do everything we can to drive that project to fruition.”

Canada’s Montney shale formation — stretching from Alberta into B.C. — is one of the largest gas resources in North America, with the potential to produce almost 12.75 trillion cubic metres of gas. Tourmaline produced the equivalent of about 495,900 barrels of oil a day in the second quarter, a figure that was reduced by about three per cent because of fires in the area.

The Shell Plc-led LNG Canada project in Kitimat is on track to begin shipping cargoes by the middle of the decade. The plant is estimated to cost $40 billion, and its first phase is expected to produce about 14 million tonnes of LNG tons a year.

https://vancouversun.com/business/energy/top-gas-producer-in-canada-joins-effort-for-new-pacific-lng-terminal

The agreement covers trains 1, 2 and 3 of Mexico Pacific’s anchor LNG export facility, Saguaro Energia, located in Puerto Libertad on the west coast of Mexico. ConocoPhillips also has an option to contract further expansion train volumes. Under the sales and purchase agreements, ConocoPhillips will purchase LNG on a free on-board basis over a term of 20 years. When fully operational, the first phase of the facility will have three trains with a combined capacity of 15 MTPA.

 “ConocoPhillips is excited to pursue this opportunity with Mexico Pacific as we continue to focus on LNG market development to meet growing global natural gas demand,” said Bill Bullock, executive vice president and CFO. “LNG is a fuel that is crucial to providing reliable, lower-carbon energy for the long term. Expanding our LNG footprint with agreements like this further enhances a balanced, diversified, and attractive portfolio as we progress our global LNG strategy.”

“We’re proud to be the first project to have an initial FID independently anchored by three majors,” said Sarah Bairstow, president and CCO at Mexico Pacific. “This unprecedented market milestone is a testament to our compelling ability to bridge competitive Permian Gas with the largest LNG market, Asia, free of Panama Canal risk and unnecessary incremental shipping emissions and costs when compared to the US Gulf Coast. While trains 1 and 2 sales are now closed, we remain committed to providing further LNG supply to meet global energy security and energy transition needs and will now turn to execute against the contracting momentum in place for a subsequent train 3 FID as quickly as possible.”

https://www.compressortech2.com/news/mexico-pacific-signs-20-year-lng-deal-with-conocophillips/8030787.article

The LNG carrier YARI LNG carrying about 68,047 mt or 154,000 cubic meters of LNG from Indonesia, arrived at Zhejiang Energy’s Wenzhou LNG terminal at noon on Aug. 7, marking the start of operation of this newly built LNG terminal, the Zhejiang Port and Shipping Management Center, a governmental institution, said.

This LNG terminal is the second one to be put into operation in China in 2023, and the 26th LNG receiving terminal in the country. Prior to this, China’s Suntien Green Energy started operating its 5 million mt/year Caofeidian LNG terminal phase 1 in Tangshan city, northern China’s Hebei province, on June 18, S&P Global reported previously.

The start-up of the Wenzhou LNG terminal was delayed due to some government formalities and typhoons, the company official said. Zhejiang Energy originally planned to start operation of the Wenzhou LNG terminal in early July.

Several typhoons have affected China since July. Typhoon Talim made landfall in southern China’s Guangdong province July 17, then Typhoon Doksuri slammed into southeast China’s Fujian province on July 28, weather reports showed. After that, shipping terminal services in eastern China were disrupted again due to Typhoon Kanu last week, according to market sources.

The LNG cargo for commissioning was supplied by state-owned PetroChina, and the vessel had arrived in the waters near Wenzhou for some time, market sources said. “The LNG cargo was swapped from PetroChina, and we will return them with our term contract LNG cargo,” another company source said.

Zhejiang Energy and ExxonMobil signed a long-term LNG sales and purchase agreement in April 2019 for the supply of 1 million mt/year of LNG over a period of 20 years.

Delivery of the term contract started since October 2022, at around one cargo a month, and Zhejiang Energy mainly received its term contract volumes via ENN’s Zhoushan LNG terminal and CNOOC’s Ningbo LNG terminal previously, according to the source.

“Wenzhou LNG terminal will enter the trial operation stage after receiving the first LNG cargo, and we will formulate our LNG procurement and import plans according to the actual market conditions,” the source noted.

Apart from the term contract signed with ExxonMobil, Zhejiang Energy’s subsidiary Zhejiang Energy Natural Gas and Novatek Gas & Power Asia also signed a 15-year LNG long-term contract for buying up to 1 million mt/year LNG from Arctic LNG 2 on a DES basis in January 2022.

The LNG cargoes under this contract are expected to start delivery from Q3 this year, further increasing Zhejiang Energy’s natural gas supply capacity, the source added.

As the fourth LNG terminal in Zhejiang province, the Wenzhou LNG terminal started construction on Sept. 18, 2021, completed on Feb. 20, 2023, and passed the inspection on April 13, according to the Zhejiang Port and Shipping Management Center.

The Wenzhou LNG terminal project is jointly invested by Zhejiang Energy (51%), state-owned Sinopec (41%) and a local company Wenzhou Xiaomen Island Investment Development Co., (8%), but only Zhejiang Energy has the operation right, according to a source with Sinopec.

The project has a designed LNG receiving capacity of 3 million mt/year and a LNG storage capacity of 1.08 Bcm, comprising a dock capable of receiving LNG carriers of 30,000-266,000 cu m and four LNG storage tanks with a capacity of 200,000 cu m each, data from Zhejiang provincial government showed earlier.

Zhejiang Energy is a major energy supplier in Zhejiang province, which is mainly engaged in power construction, natural gas development and utilization, coal circulation, and energy services, according to information posted on the company’s official website.

Zhejiang Energy has a provincial-level natural gas pipeline network of over 1,800 kilometers, 72 provincial-level natural gas stations, and 27 city gas companies, which supply more than 11 Bcm/year of natural gas, accounting for more than 81% of the total natural gas consumption in Zhejiang province, the company said.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/chinas-zhejiang-energy-receives-first-lng-cargo-at-new-wenzhou-terminal/

“Here in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, in the plant whose history goes back further than any other Bosch plant, the hydrogen future is about to happen,” said Dr. Stefan Hartung, chair of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. “Bosch knows its way around hydrogen, and Bosch is growing with hydrogen.” Bosch develops technology for hydrogen production and application. By 2030, the company plans to generate sales of roughly US$5.6 billion with hydrogen technology.

The Bosch plant in Bamberg, Germany, will supply the Feuerbach factory with the fuel cell stack. Important system components, such as the electric air compressor and the recirculation blower, come from the Bosch plant in Homburg, Germany. “Bosch is one of the very few companies that are capable of mass-producing technology as complex as fuel cell stacks. We don’t just have the required systems expertise, but also the capability of quickly scaling up new developments to mass production,” said Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chair of Bosch Mobility. Production of the fuel-cell power module is not only starting in Feuerbach, but also in Chongqing, China. The required components will come from the Wuxi plant. “Bosch is the first company to produce these systems in both China and Germany,” said Hartung. “In addition, Bosch is also planning to manufacture stacks for mobile applications in its US plant in Anderson, South Carolina. Worldwide, the company expects that, by 2030, one in five new trucks weighing 6 tons (5.4 tonnes) or more will feature a fuel-cell powertrain.

“Only with hydrogen can there be a climate-neutral world,” the company said in a statement for Bosch Tech Day 2023. “For Bosch, that is crystal-clear. The company therefore strongly advocates the establishment of a hydrogen economy and is stepping up its investments in hydrogen. Between 2021 and 2026, Bosch will have invested a total of nearly US$2.8 billion in the development and manufacturing of its hydrogen technologies. That is another US$1.12 billion than was earmarked in the investment plan for 2021 to 2024. The business opportunities for Bosch are huge, as is the effect on jobs. Even now, there are more than 3000 people at Bosch working on hydrogen technologies, more than half of them in Europe. Most of the vacancies can be filled from within the company, and especially with people who have so far worked in the Bosch powertrain business. However, the further prospects for the hydrogen business depend on the political environment. Hartung especially believes that Europe must do much more to create a counterweight to the rapid pace of developments in other regions of the world, such as the United States.”

At the event, Hartung outlined four demands of German and European policymakers. “First, we have to step up the pace of hydrogen production in the EU,” said Hartung. “Second, global supply chains have to be set up, and third, hydrogen has to be used in all sectors of the economy.” As a fourth point, he stressed the importance of quickly setting up infrastructure for distributing hydrogen in Europe.

Bosch Technology Starts With Electrolysis And Ends With The Hydrogen Engine

At the start of 2023, Bosch started constructing prototypes for electrolysis using proton exchange membranes, the reverse of the energy conversion method used in mobile fuel cells. Starting in the fall, the company intends to make 1.25-MW prototypes available for pilot applications and is on track to start volume production in 2025. Bosch is exploring several options for the use of hydrogen. Stationary solid-oxide fuel cells can be used for the distributed supply of power and heat. In a pilot project at the hospital in Erkelenz, near Cologne in Germany, Bosch wants to use this technology to achieve overall efficiency of 90%. The micropower plant there will initially run on natural gas but can be converted to green hydrogen. Apart from the fuel cell powertrain, Bosch is also working on the hydrogen engine, developing systems for both port and direct injection of hydrogen. The company said the solution is particularly suitable for heavy vehicles on long hauls with especially heavy loads. “A hydrogen engine can do everything a diesel engine does, but on top of that, it is carbon neutral. It also allows a fast and cost-effective entry into hydrogen-based mobility,” Heyn said. One major advantage is that more than 90% of the development and manufacturing technologies needed for it already exist. The hydrogen engine is expected to be launched starting in 2024. Even now, Bosch has four orders for production projects from all the major economic regions and expects six-figure unit volumes by 2030.

https://gascompressionmagazine.com/2023/08/07/bosch-starts-volume-production-of-hydrogen-fuel-cell-power-module/