Excelerate’s Excelsior FSRU, recently tied to an MoU with Bulgaria’s Overgas, has been contracted to serve Germany’s new FSRU import terminal in Wilhelmshaven from 2023
The 138,000 m3-capacity floating storage and regasification (FSRU) vessel was due to redeploy from Israel at the end of 2022, and the new contract retains a schedule of operations similar to that discussed between Excelerate and Overgas.
Under that memorandum of understanding, Overgas agreed to purchase up to 1Bn m3 of regasified LNG annually for 10 years from Excelerate (or an affiliated entity) via the Vlora terminal, an FSRU located in the port of Vlora, Albania, and the proposed Vlora-Fier pipeline, which is expected to interconnect with existing natural gas infrastructure in Europe’s Southern Gas Corridor.
Under Excelsior’s new contract with the German Government’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), the FSRU will go on charter in Q1 2023, following a drydock at the end of 2022 for scheduled maintenance.
BMWK previously announced that a consortium including Tree Energy Solutions (TES), Eon and Engie would jointly develop and implement Germany’s fifth FSRU import terminal at Wilhelmshaven using an Excelerate vessel. According to US-based Excelerate, the Excelsior FSRU, with a send-out capacity of five billion cubic metres per year, will accelerate the development of TES’ green hydrogen terminal at Wilhelmshaven.
“The deployment of the FSRUExcelsior to Germany demonstrates our commitment to strengthening energy security at a time when traditional energy sources have proven unreliable,” Excelerate president and chief executive Steven Kobos said. “FSRUs have the ability to offer flexible access to greater supply diversification and can serve as a complementary backstop for the rapid scaling of green energy projects. These benefits are consistent with the stated goals of the US-EU Task Force on Energy Security.”
Excelerate announced in early September 2022 it had signed a term sheet with French multinational energy company Engie for deploying an FSRU to Germany to “provide flexible and secure LNG regasification capacity for Germany as it continues to seek alternatives to Russian pipeline gas supply”.
