Rostock LNG Terminal

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Rostock LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG terminal in Rostock, Germany. It was cancelled in September 2021 due to unfavourable market conditions. In spring 2022, there was speculation that Rostock could be chosen as the site for a new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to import LNG. In 2023, BarMalGas took over the project.

Location

The terminal would be located in Rostock, Germany.

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Project Details

• Owner: BarMalGas
  • Formerly Novatek, Fluxys
• Parent: BarMalGas
  • Formerly Novatek, Fluxys
• Location: Rostock, Germany
• Coordinates: 54.181909, 12.088052 (approximate)
• Capacity: 0.8 mtpa (LNG, bio-LNG, synthetic LNG)
  • Fomerly 0.3 mpta, 0.41 bcm/y
• Cost:
  • Formerly US$100 million
• Financing:
  • Formerly €19.4 million (US$22.8 million) grant from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility
• Status: Proposed
  • Cancelled
• Type: Import
• FID Status:
• Start Year: 2026
  • Formerly 2023

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

Background

A joint venture between Russia's Novatek and Belgium's Fluxys plans to build a small-scale LNG terminal along the Baltic Sea in Rostock. A final investment decision is expected in 2019, and it is expected to be completed in 2023. The German government has called its efforts to import LNG "a gesture to our American friends" and a way to diversify its energy supply as it phases out coal.

There is no regasification capacity and pipeline connection planned for the Rostock LNG terminal. The LNG supplies will be entirely used either as a transport fuel for ships and trucks at the local harbor at Rostock, or for distribution as a liquid by trucks and rail. Novatek is expected to be the main supplier of LNG to the terminal via its Vysotsk LNG Terminal near St. Petersburg.

In September 2021, the project promoters Novatek and Fluxys announced that they had abandoned plans to build the Rostock terminal. Constantin Zerger of the German environment group Die Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) welcomed the news, commenting, "The decision shows that LNG also has no future as a fuel for trucks and ships." The managing director of the port of Rostock said he hopes that hydrogen-based products can be imported there instead in the future. Fluxys acknowledged that the decision to cancel the project was due to unfavourable market conditions.

As part of the boom in new LNG terminal proposals in Germany since February 2022, and amidst heightened speculation about new projects, there have been unconfirmed reports that a new terminal proposal could emerge in the German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania where the cancelled Rostock LNG Terminal site is situated. As of late March 2022, there were no confirmed details on any plans. In May 2022, there was continued speculation that Rostock could be chosen as the site for an FSRU as part of German government plans to commission four new FSRUs along the country's north coast.

As of October 2022, projects in connection with the planned Rostock LNG Terminal were listed in ENTSOG's Ten-Year Network Development Plan, but there is not yet sufficient evidence that the project has been rebooted.

In May 2023, it was reported that BarMalGas had taken over the project and that the company was planning to begin construction in 2023. The new plan for the LNG terminal is that it will output around 800,000 tons of LNG, bio-LNG, and synthetic LNG annually. The facility will target bunkering vessels and LNG-powered trucks.

Financing

In July of 2020, the European Union provided €19.4 million (US$22.8 million) worth of grants to help fund construction and operation of the project.