- Mukran on the German Baltic Sea welcomes an LNG tanker at its terminal.
The LNG vessel "Hellas Diana," measuring around 300 meters long and operating under the Maltese flag, recently docked at the LNG terminal in Mukran, located on the German island of Rügen. The ship had sailed from Freeport, Texas, as indicated by Marine Traffic's online tracking system. This delivery forms part of the ongoing trial operations of the "German Baltic Sea" energy terminal, as reported by operator Deutsche Regas.
Rügen island boasts LNG offloading capabilities via the FSRUs, "Energos Power" and "Neptune". Once transformed into gas, this LNG can be integrated into Germany's gas network through a natural gas connection line leading to Lubmin. Deutsche Regas aims to achieve a yearly capacity of 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas, equating to roughly 15% of Germany's annual gas consumption.
The German government included the construction of this terminal, primarily focused on tourism on Rügen's Baltic coast, within the LNG Acceleration Act, to safeguard Germany's gas supplies. However, there's increasing skepticism that a gas shortage, widely cited as the reason behind constructing these specialized gas tanker terminals, is imminent.
Surprisingly, despite the halt in gas supplies from Russia, Germany receives the vast majority of its natural gas via pipelines, particularly from Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium. LNG constitutes less than ten percent, as per industry data. One of the project's most vocal critics is the German Environmental Aid (DUH), which labels it an "expensive and unnecessary financial blow."
The LNG terminal in Mukran, situated on Rügen, a German island, benefits from offloading capabilities provided by FSRUs like "Energos Power" and "Neptune". Germany aims to process 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually through this terminal, accounting for approximately 15% of the nation's total gas consumption.
