EurOil: Netherlands to receive floating LNG plant in early August

A floating LNG (FLNG) plant is expected to arrive at Eemshaven port in the Netherlands’ Groningen Province in early August, helping the country and the wider region overcome their dependence on Russian gas.

The Netherlands was formerly a net exporter of natural gas, and swung to becoming an importer in 2018 as a result of the continued phase-out of production at the giant Groningen field. The field is due to shut down completely next year because of decades of earthquakes caused by production activities.

The Dutch government has enlisted gas transmission operator Gasunie to double the country’s LNG import capacity to 24bn cubic metres per year in order to wean itself off supply from Russia’s Gazprom. Under this plan, the existing Gate terminal in Rotterdam is due to be expanded by 5-8 bcm, in addition to an expansion agreed earlier that will raise its capacity from 12 to 13.4 bcm per year by 2024. The Eemshaven terminal, named EemsEnergyTerminal, meanwhile, is expected to bring shore about 6 bcm per year of gas.

EemsEnergyTerminal will be connected to existing infrastructure that is currently used by the Groningen field, which the Dutch government has refused to keep open for longer in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Exmar’s S188 FLNG plant has been hired under a five-year charter to provide regasification services. It is currently still moored in Singapore but will begin its three-month journey to the Netherlands in May.

S188 will help support European energy security in the near term, but Gasunie plans to replace it with a permanent LNG facility at a later stage. This permanent station may also handle green hydrogen in the future, giving it a role to play in the Dutch energy transition.

“We will now enter further negotiations with potential customers,” Ulco Vermeulen, member of Gasunie’s board, said in a statement this week. “They will be the ones who will be using our terminal in the near future, initially for LNG, and later for green hydrogen.”

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