The German Government has signed two memoranda of understanding with the country's top gas utilities for the delivery of two floating LNG import terminals.
According to a Reuters report, the deals, with Uniper,
RWE, and EnBW, will see the vessels, due to be completed this winter, delivered
by March 2024.
"This is an important date in the series of steps that
we have been taking since the beginning of the year, to make ourselves
independent and less susceptible to blackmail from (Russian President Vladimir)
Putin, and to give Germany a robust and resilient energy infrastructure, or in
this case gas infrastructure," Economy Minister Robert Habeck said.
LNG has become the last resort for energy-hungry Germany
when Russia reduced flows via the main artery supplying the EU's biggest
economy with natural gas. Most of it comes from the United States, but Germany
has no import terminals for the super-chilled fuel that needs to be re-gasified
at the point of entry into the country.
Stationary LNG import terminals take years to build while
floating storage and regasification are much faster to install once their
construction is completed.
US LNG volumes are not large enough to fully replace Russian
gas flow via pipelines due to production capacity constraints, so Germany needs
alternative suppliers, too.
Chief among these could be Qatar, but negotiations between
Berlin and Doha ended without a deal earlier this year as the Qataris insist on
long-term contracts and a clause that would oblige Germany not to resell any
gas it is not using.
Meanwhile, the head of Germany's energy regulator warned
that gas consumption would have to be cut deeper than the EU-wide voluntary 15%
to 20% if the country is to avoid a harsh winter of shortages.
"If we fail to reach our target of 20% gas savings then
there is a serious risk that we will not have enough gas," Klaus
Mueller told the Financial Times earlier this week, which would lead
to gas rationing.
