The developer of the planned 8 Bcm/year LNG import terminal at Brunsbuettel in northern Germany is finalizing binding import contracts with a number of market players, a spokeswoman said late March 26.
German LNG Terminal, or GLT, -- whose developers are Dutch gas grid operator Gasunie, storage operator Vopak and Germany-based Oiltanking -- is one of three LNG import terminals under development in northern Germany.
"We are making substantial progress," the spokeswoman said. "We are in the process of finalizing the contracts with the customers," she said, adding that this pertained to "several binding contracts on import capacity."
In addition, the engineering, procurement, and construction contract was also being finalized and in the coming weeks the developer plans to submit the permit application for the project. "We will take the Final Investment Decision after we receive the permits," the spokeswoman said.
As well as the Brunsbuettel terminal, the two other planned projects are the 12 Bcm/year import facility at Stade under development by Hanseatic Energy Hub, or HEH, and Uniper's 10 Bcm/year FSRU project at Wilhelmshaven.
The Stade project last month completed the non-binding phase of its open season, which it said confirmed market interest from global players that supported the "full planned capacity" of the facility.
HEH said it would launch the binding phase of the open season in Q2 2021.
Uniper, however, said in November it was it was re-evaluating its planned Wilhelmshaven FSRU after market players showed lukewarm interest in booking long-term capacity at the plant.
Brunsbuettel imports
Germany has no LNG import terminals at present, and there have been question marks about the need for a plant given how well the country is connected in Europe to numerous gas supply sources.
While the Brunsbuettel terminal is the most advanced, FID has been pushed back having been expected by the end of 2020.
In November last year, RWE -- which plans to take a sizeable chunk of the capacity at the facility -- said there had been a "slight delay" in finalizing the project with FID expected in the first half of 2021.
In September 2018, RWE agreed to a provisional deal to secure a substantial part of the plant's capacity, which was followed by similar deals with one unnamed company and Switzerland-based trader Axpo.
In June 2020, RWE and GLT said they were close to finalizing a binding import contract and expected to complete the process by the end of 2020.
