Wilhelmshaven TES LNG Terminal

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Wilhelmshaven TES LNG Terminal, also known as German North Sea LNG, is a proposed onshore LNG import terminal in Germany. The facility is intended to be longer-term replacement for the interim onshore Wilhelmshaven FSRU and/or Wilhelmshaven TES FSRU.

Location

The terminal is proposed to be located in Wilhelmshaven port, Lower Saxony, Germany.

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Project details

• Operator:
• Owner: Tree Energy Solutions (TES)
• Parent company:
• Location: Wilhelmshaven port, Lower Saxony, Germany
• Coordinates: 53.516667, 8.133333 (approximate)
• Capacity: 15 bcm/y
  • Formerly 16-20 bcm/y
  • And up to 5 million tonnes per annum of green hydrogen by 2045.
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Import
• Start year: 2025
• Cost:
• Financing: €65 million in capital fundraising from leading financial institutions and international energy corporations, including E.ON, HSBC, UniCredit and Zodiac Maritime; €30 million equity share in TES and an investment of €100 million in the construction of the Wilhelmshaven terminal from Fortescue Future Industries
• Associated infrastructure: The proposed OGE Gas Pipeline, Wilhelmshaven TES FSRU

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

Background

The Belgian hydrogen company Tree Energy Solutions (TES) commenced plans in 2019 to develop a "green energy hub" at Germany's Wilhelmshaven port. As a result of the European energy crisis in early 2022, TES announced it would first accommodate LNG as a transition fuel at Wilhelmshaven and would work to ensure an operational start of the project's first phase by the fourth quarter of 2025. Discussing TES's acceleration of its plans in March in 2022, the company's founder and managing director Paul van Poecke said that the project was deserving of the same, if not stronger, support from the German state than was being shown to other new LNG terminal initiatives in the country. TES is backed by the Belgian investor group AltaInvest, and the investment needs for the terminal have been reported as €25 billion out to 2045.

TES had planned for the first phase of its Wilhelmshaven project to accommodate 25 TWh of green gas imports, rising to 250 TWh per year and over 5 million tonnes of hydrogen in its final stage by 2045. TES's Chief Operational Officer Otto Waterlander told Reuters in March 2022 that the German government requested TES "integrate an LNG terminal" into the planned hydrogen factory to reduce dependence on Russian gas imports. In March 2022, TES and energy firm E.ON signed a deal to import green hydrogen primarily produced from solar, wind and hydro power in countries with "abundant renewable energy sources". The initial phase would see the Wilhelmshaven hub receiving more than half a million tonnes of hydrogen.

In April 2022, TES launched an open season running to May 25, 2022 for entities seeking to import LNG, stating that it was planning for initial capacity to import up to 16-20 bcm/y of LNG from 2025 onwards, with potential expansion beyond this date depending on market demand. The company said that from 2027/8 onwards its regasification terminal will, as part of the Wilhelmshaven Green Energy Hub, "increasingly be reserved for imports of fossil-free green gas". The terminal layout is to ultimately be comprised of 6 ship berths, 1,600,000 cubic meters of onshore storage capacity using 8 onsite tanks, of which four will be available during the initial stage. TES's plan is for the terminal to offer direct access to an extensive gas pipeline network, including existing salt caverns at Etzel and proximity to the Groningen gas grid infrastructure.

In May 2022, TES announced that its onshore terminal had been included as a "Priority Project" under the German Government's Acceleration Law, granting the project the right to reduced permitting and associated approval periods before the commencement of construction.

In June 2022, TES disclosed that its open season had raised "strong market interest," with the company receiving expressions of interest from approximately 25 interested parties for more than twice the offered capacity of 20 bcm/y for conventional LNG. Otto Waterlander, Chief Commercial Officer at TES, said that over 70% of those 25 interested parties "expressed interest in transitioning to green gas imports before 2043. This proves the TES value proposition to scale up green hydrogen-based gas imports for the German market.”

In October 2022, Australian firm Fortescue Future Industries and TES announced a partnership that would see the supply of 300,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen to Europe, with a final investment decision targeted for 2023. The hydrogen would be converted to synthetic methane and shipped to the planned TES import terminal in Wilhelmshaven. As part of the deal, Fortescue Future Industries is to take a €30 million (US$29.8 million) share in TES and also invest €100 million in the construction of the Wilhelmshaven terminal.

In March 2024, TES was granted an exemption from open market regulations that will allow it to book long-term capacity and set its own tariffs. In a press statement related to the exemption, TES said that the terminal will "have fully transitioned to the import of electric natural gas (e-NG) latest in 2044."