New gas terminals arrive to ease Putin’s grip on Europe
Two floating liquefied natural gas terminals are setting up in a Dutch port, the first in a wave of the specialist tankers that Europe is banking on to ease the worst energy crunch in decades.
The Golar Igloo and the Eemshaven LNG are berthed together in the northern seaport of Eemshaven. Both are floating storage and regasification units, or FSRUs, designed to convert the super-chilled fuel transported on seagoing vessels into gas that can be pumped into onshore networks. The terminal officially opened yesterday with the arrival of the first shipment from the US.
The ships’ arrival before winter will be crucial in helping Europe through a deepening fuel crisis after Russia slashed gas deliveries in retaliation for sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. Soaring energy prices have pushed economies to the brink of recession, forcing governments to fast-track the use of floating gas terminals that take a fraction of the time to set up than their onshore versions.
The vessels’ popularity is spreading. Germany, which used to get more than a half of its gas via pipelines from Russia, is now chartering five FSRUs through the government and two more that will be privately rented. Three of the ships are slated to start this winter. Italy, France and the Baltic countries are also planning or investigating floating terminals to import LNG.
In Eemshaven, a deepwater port on the northeast tip of the Netherlands, a so-called commissioning LNG cargo arrived to prepare the facility for its first commercial shipment in mid-September. Both of the FSRUs are rented for five years, and together are called EemsEnergyTerminal.
The LNG tanker Murex, loaded at Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass project on the US Gulf Coast, arrived yesterday at the new terminal, ship-tracking data on Bloomberg shows.
The US has channelled record volumes of LNG – pitched as ‘‘freedom gas’’ by the Trump administration – to the continent this year. –