The operating company of the planned first German liquefied gas terminal in Brunsbüttel has landed its first major customer in Shell.
A declaration of intent stipulates "that Shell will book a substantial part of the capacity of the terminal in Brunsbüttel for the import of LNG on a long-term basis," said German LNG Terminal GmbH on Wednesday.
"Both sides are currently working on contractually binding agreements on the scope and duration of the partnership as quickly as possible." The terminal is scheduled to go into operation by 2026 at the latest and will have a capacity of 8 billion cubic meters of gas.
In the long term, it is to be converted to import green hydrogen derivatives such as ammonia.
Planning for an import terminal for liquid natural gas (LNG) in the port of the small town on the Lower Elbe in Schleswig-Holstein has been going on for years, but hasn't made much progress.
The federal government is now speeding things up, which in view of the war in Ukraine wants to end Germany's dependence on Russian natural gas as quickly as possible.
Against this background, the federal government is taking a 50 percent stake in the operating company through its promotional bank KfW.
Other shareholders are the Dutch gas network operator Gasunie (40 percent) and the German utility RWE (10 percent).
According to the announcement, these “recent developments” are the background to the agreement with Shell.
Shell Germany boss Fabian Ziegler spoke of an "important step to ensure the supply in Germany and beyond in the whole of Europe in the short term".