LNG terminal operator Deutsche ReGas has received the first LNG tanker at its FSRU-based LNG import facility in Germany’s port of Mukran as part of the commissioning phase.
The 2015-built 161,870-cbm, Maran Gas Alexandria, owned by Greece’s Maran Gas and Qatar’s Nakilat, arrived on Tuesday at the 2021-built 174,000-cbm, Energos Power, in Mukran on the island of Rugen.
Maran Gas Alexandria is loaded with a cargo from Equinor’s Hammerfest LNG export plant in Norway.
“According to the preliminary permission for test operations at the Energie-Terminal “Deutsche Ostsee”, LNG from Norway will be loaded, regasified, and fed in for test purposes in the coming days,” a spokesperson for Deutsche ReGas told LNG Prime late on Tuesday.
“We expect to receive approval for regular operation in the coming weeks after completing the test operation,” the spokesperson said.
Last month, the German firm led by Ingo Wagner and Stephan Knabe kicked off commissioning activities at the LNG import facility following the arrival of the FSRU owned by US-based Energos Infrastructure at the designated berth 12 in the industrial port of Mukran.
The FSRU, which has a regasification capacity of up to 7.5 bcm per year, also arrived loaded with a cargo of LNG from the Hammerfest LNG terminal.
The aim of the trial operation is to test and commission all onshore and offshore systems.
Besides the FSRU, the Mukran project includes the 50-kilometer-long pipeline Ostsee Anbindungsleitung (OAL).
Germany’s Gascade built this pipeline which connects the LNG terminal in the port of Mukran with the German gas transmission network in Lubmin.
In June last year, Deutsche ReGas signed a deal with the German government to sub-charter the FSRU delivered in 2021 by Hudong-Zhonghua.
Deutsche ReGas took over the charter of Energos Power in October last year.
Energos Power will work along the FSRU Neptune in Mukran as part of the second phase of the LNG terminal with a capacity of up to 13.5 bcm per year.
Deutsche ReGas officially launched its Lubmin FSRU-based LNG import terminal, first private LNG terminal in Germany, in January last year.
It chartered the 2009-built 145,000-cbm, FSRU Neptune, from French energy giant TotalEnergies for this project.
Deutsche ReGas previously said that Neptune is expected to leave the port in Lubmin in the spring of this year.
Following necessary refitting work, this FSRU is expected to start operations in Mukran in the summer.
