Germany is putting into operation a second liquefied natural gas import terminal, the latest step in its effort to replace piped Russian gas since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It is deploying floating storage regasification units (FSRUs) to receive seaborne LNG, which official data shows has captured an 11 per cent share of all German gas imports over the first three quarters of 2025.
Long-term, Germany is planning shore-based facilities to import and produce "green hydrogen".
Below are details of the latest developments:
The terminal on Ruegen island in the Baltic Sea operated by private firm Deutsche ReGas supplies onshore grids with LNG from pipeline firm Gascade's OAL link, in cooperation with Norway's Hoegh Evi's FSRU Neptune.
It wants to restart a second FSRU eventually and restore full capacity of 13.5 billion cubic metres by 2027.
ReGas has launched a bidding round to expand Mukran's capacity by offering an additional five billion cubic metres per year from 2027 to 2043.
In September, it signed long-term agreements with chemicals producer BASF and Norwegian incumbent Equinor for non-specified regas capacity.
The company said it regasified 8.35 TWh of LNG in October and November, holding first place ahead of each of the other three working LNG terminals.
ReGas and Hoegh in June 2024 signed an agreement to develop the Baltic Sea port, a forerunner of Mukran, into an ammonia/hydrogen import terminal.
Utility Uniper launched Germany's first FSRU operation, Wilhelmshaven 1, on the North Sea in 2022.
Uniper plans to add a land-based ammonia import reception terminal and cracker in the second half of this decade to make green hydrogen, and build a 200 MW electrolyser to be fed with local wind power.
DET officially started commercial operations at Wilhelmshaven 2 on August 29 via the Excelerate Energy-operated FSRU Excelsior. Maintenance also took place in October.
In auctions on November 25-26, DET failed to place some available regasification slots in 2025, 2026 and 2027 with gas market players, and will repeat them on December 9 and 10.
DET said on November 14 that it had agreed with private company Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH) to take on the job of erecting an FSRU superstructure at the Elbe River-based inland port.
DET said it would start with inspection, planning and execution of the job immediately but added that the terminal would not be ready to go into operation before the second quarter of 2026.
The designated FSRU, Energos Force, would return to the site in time, where Uniper and sector peer EnBW will be the main customers.
Prior to the latest developments, DET and HEH had temporarily cancelled contracts with each other over unresolved disputes over construction schedules and payments.
HEH plans to start a shore-based terminal for LNG, "bio-LNG" and synthetic natural gas at Stade in 2027.
The Hoegh Gannet was removed temporarily in September for upgrades. These were completed and the ship returned on November 24 to the North Sea port.
It went into operation in 2023 in Brunsbuettel, initially chartered by the trading arm of utility RWE, before being handed over to DET.
It is the forerunner of a land-based LNG facility, cleared to receive €40 million ($46.4 million) of state support.
This could start operations at the end of 2026, when a newly inaugurated, adjacent ammonia terminal could also start up.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Joe Bavier)