Le Havre FSRU

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Le Havre FSRU Terminal is a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) terminal for LNG import in the port of Le Havre in Normandy, France.

Location

The map below shows the approximate location of Le Havre FSRU Terminal.

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Project Details

• Operator:
• Owner: TotalEnergies
• Parent company: TotalEnergies
• Vessel:
• Vessel operator:
• Vessel owner: TotalEnergies
• Vessel parent company: TotalEnergies
• Location: Port of Le Havre, Normandy, France
• Coordinates: 49.4622283932675, 0.04295842576 (approximate)
• Capacity: 5 bcm/y
• Cost:
• FID status: FID
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2023
• Planned Retirement Year: 2028

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcm/y = billion cubic meters per year

Background

In March 2022, the French business newspaper Les Echos reported that the French government had tasked TotalEnergies and a subsidiary of Engie with installing an FSRU terminal in the port of Le Havre in north-west France, and that talks between the government and the companies were underway. This is one of several such proposals to have appeared across Europe as a result of the war in Ukraine focusing attention on LNG to replace Russian gas supplies coming via pipeline.

French gas system operator GRTgaz also confirmed the development, and said that realisation of the FSRU could allow France to increase its regasification capacity by almost 4.2 bcm/y and reduce its dependence on Russian gas. It was also reported that a decision on the project would be taken "within weeks".

In June 2022, the incoming French prime minister Elisabeth Borne announced that the Le Havre terminal would be connected in 2023 and would "cover almost 10% of French gas consumption". At the beginning of July 2022, French media reported that a final investment decision on the project would be taken "in the coming weeks". TotalEnergies is looking to deploy one of the two FSRUs it owns at Le Havre.

In August 2022, French law no. 2022-1158 "on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power" stated that the "operating period of the floating LNG terminal ... may not exceed five years". It was also reported that the French government had formally selected TotalEnergies to install the FSRU with an import capacity of 5 bcm/year. Construction work by TotalEnergies and GRTgaz should start by the end of 2022, it was reported.

As of August 2023, the project was on track to begin operations in September 2023.

In October 2023, TotalEnergies announced that the project had been commissioned. The project is intended to operate for five years until 2028.

Opposition

In October 2022, the Climate Collective of Le Havre (Le collectif Climat du Havre) called for a public debate of the project and launched a petition in opposition to the terminal.

In June 2023, a Greenpeace France investigation found that the facility was not needed for France's energy security needs, that France already had sufficient LNG import capacity, and that the project was inconsistent with the country's climate and environmental commitments.