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By Vera Eckert

FRANKFURT (Reuters). Germany took steps on Thursday to boost liquefied LNG imports. The country is moving away from Russian pipelined supplies. On Thursday, it rented four floating storage and regasification unit (FSRUs), and chose the Wilhelmshaven port in the North Sea as the first handling hub.

As countries across Europe try to obtain more LNG quickly, the demand has risen for FSRUs. Because it takes time to construct more permanent LNG terminals, they are an important part of Germany’s strategy.

Europe’s largest economy relies almost entirely on Russian piped gas as its main source of supply. In 2021, imported Russian gas amounted to 142 billion cubic meters (bcm). Berlin stated that ending its dependence upon Russian gas could be possible only in the summer 2024.

Germany has committed to chartering 2 FSRUs through Uniper on Thursday and two 10-year agreements with Norwegian vessel operator Hoegh LNG by September/October. These deals will be managed by Uniper rival RWE.

Wilhelmshaven’s northern deep-sea port will become the first to receive seaborne LNG during the winter 2022/23. Brunsbuettel, Schleswig-Holstein, is soon to follow.

Last weekend, the Economy Ministry stated that it needed four FSRUs in order to accelerate the diversification and development of Ukraine’s energy resources after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Robert Habeck, Economy Minister of Russia told Wilhelmshaven reporters that the terminals are part of the strategy to “become independent from blackmail from Russia.” “A day like this gives me confidence that it can succeed,” he stated.

The government has set aside 2.94 Billion Euros to finance the FSRUs. Legislation to permit the construction of the infrastructure will be passed shortly.

Hanns Koenig of Aurora Energy Research said, “I think the date, either end 2022 or early 2023, is technically realistic for the Commissioning of the LNG Landing Point.” But you must get gas.

Habeck visited recently gas-producing nations like Norway, Qatar and other countries to find alternatives to Russia.

Wilhelmshaven will be home to the first German FSRUs. It has a production capacity of 7.5 Billion cubic meters per annum, which is equivalent to 8.5% total German gas consumption.

According to a statement jointly issued by Lower Saxony’s economy ministry and Berlin’s economy ministry, the other three units will have a minimum of 5 bcm each.

Dynagas will charter the two Uniper vessels.

The gas arriving in Wilhelmshaven will be fed into Germany’s pipeline grid via links to be provided by Niedersachsen Ports GmbH & Co. KG (NPorts) and in close cooperation with Uniper which is investing 65 million euros ($68.82 million) in the project.

OGE is currently building a link line between the port and existing underground storage caverns or long-distance gas transport pipes.

The longer-term goal is to make the site switch to clean hydrogen and renewable gas, as per Germany’s climate protection obligations.

Antje von Broock, the German managing director of Friends of the Earth’s German arm (BUND), said that using LNG “contradicts the government’s goal of climate neutrity.”

($1 = 0.9445 euros)