Company will not continue the Wilhelmshaven LNG project in its present form as market players' booking intentions are not enough
Uniper unlikely to move ahead with the Wilhelmshaven LNG project. (Credit: aymane jdidi from Pixabay)
Uniper said that it will re-evaluate plans for the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Wilhelmshaven, Germany after failing to get the required response for its import capacities from market players.
According to the German energy company, market players are reluctant in the current circumstances to make binding bookings for the terminal’s import capacities.
The LNG terminal at Wilhemshaven is planned to be a floating regasification and storage unit (FSRU) with a nominal capacity of 9.8 billion cubic meters a year. It was to be developed within the next five years by LNG Terminal Wilhelmshaven, a fully-owned subsidiary of Uniper.
Last week, Uniper held a procedure for evaluating interest from market players for booking of the import capacities.
Although, several players participated in it and expressed general interest, the number of those who made their booking intentions binding was not enough, said Uniper.
Uniper project manager Oliver Giese said: “Economic uncertainties have definitely played a role in the current circumstances. Many companies don’t want to make long-term commitments at the moment.
“The results of the expression-of-interest procedure show that we need to revise the scope and focus of the planned terminal to ensure that it remains attractive to market players and economically predictable for LTeW and Uniper.”
The German energy company had previously indicated that the final investment decision on the construction of the LNG import terminal will be subject to sufficient demand from market players and also its economic viability.
Uniper CEO Andreas Schierenbeck said: “LNG is a growth market and natural gas is playing a bigger and bigger part in ensuring security of supply and in decarbonizing the global energy system. This is why Uniper is committed to ensuring a secure supply of LNG both now and in the future.
“But it’s also clear that all considerations must meet the same strict economic criteria.
“We will now discuss all this in depth with those who, like me, consider the development of such an import terminal in Germany to be a fascinating idea and will continue to support it.”
The LNG import terminal was planned to be developed at The Jade Bay, a deep water port in Wilhemshaven. The intended storage capacity of the terminal is 263,000m³ of LNG.
Uniper’s objective for developing the LNG project is to give better connectivity to Germany with the global gas markets.
In October last year, Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum signed agreements to increase its stake in Uniper to more than 70.5%.