Germany’s Deutsche Regas terminates LNG FSRU charter

Market: Natural gas
10/02/25

German private terminal operator Deutsche Regas has terminated its sublet charter of the 174,000m³ Energos Power floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) with the German government.

The FSRU, under a 15-year charter that began in 2023, makes up about half of the regasification capacity at Germany's 10.5mn t/yr Deutsche Ostsee LNG import terminal in Mukran, leaving the 145,000m³ Neptune the sole operational FSRU at Mukran.

The firm has taken 205 GWh/d of Deutsche Ostsee's regasification capacity off line, according to an urgent market message on Gas Infrastructure Europe website, leaving 206 GWh/d operational.

The cancellation comes as a result of state-owned terminal operator Deutsche Energy Terminal's (DET's) "ruinous pricing policy since December 2024", Deutsche Regas' managing partner, Ingo Wagner, said.

Deutsche Regas was unsuccessful in re-auctioning regasification slots across the first quarter of 2025 at Deutsche Ostsee in mid-December, after not being able to market them in the first round of auctions earlier in the month. Some slots may have been offered at as little as 5¢/mn Btu, market participants said. Delivery costs to Mukran are even higher because of the extra sailing days compared with delivering to Germany's west coast terminals, trading firms said, as well as high marginal regasification costs compared with other terminals in northwest Europe. Mukran last received a cargo on 1 December last year.

DET sold all 50 regasification slots on offer at its 5.8mn t/yr Brunsbuttel and same-sized Wilhelmshaven 1 terminals through auctions in December last year and in February. The successful sale may have been caused by DET not setting a reserve price for slots over the period in December.

DET has marketed regasification slots at Brunsbuttel and Wilhelmshaven "systematically and significantly" below the cost-covering fees set by the country's Federal Network Agency, according to Deutsche Regas.

Deutsche Ostsee can be more attractive to some buyers than DET-operated terminals on Germany's northwestern coast, probably because Deutsche Ostsee offers direct access to the Opal pipeline in to which the now-defunct 55bn m³/yr Nord Stream 1 pipeline fed.

The end of the charter with Deutsche Regas could open up additional subletting opportunities for the Energos Power, market participants said.

By Irfan Jaafar

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