BERLIN—Germany’s newly constructed liquefied-natural-gas terminal received its first full cargo from the U.S. on Tuesday, as Berlin races to shore up its supply after the end of its decadeslong energy relationship with Russia.
The shipment arrived at the LNG import terminal in the port town of Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea, a facility that was built at a breakneck speed in less than a year to help Germany avert an energy shortage.
The U.S. gas supplier, Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LLC, a subsidiary of Venture Global LNG, is likewise rapidly expanding its facilities to meet Europe’s rising demand. Venture Global LNG last year secured $13.2 billion in financing and gave final approval for a project near New Orleans—the first new U.S. plant to receive a green light in three years.
The tanker, the Maria Energy, was loaded on Dec. 19 in Calcasieu Pass, La., at a facility Venture Global brought online in the middle of last year. It carries around 170,000 cubic meters of LNG, which is enough to supply around 50,000 German households with energy for one year, according to
the operator of the Wilhelmshaven terminal.
Russia, which supplied more than half of Germany’s gas imports before the war in Ukraine, halted deliveries last year in what European officials have called an economic retaliation for Berlin’s support for Kyiv. With German industry and households highly reliant on the fuel, the country raced to secure gas from other exporters and build its own facilities to import LNG.
“The use of LNG as a reliable energy source is crucial for the security of supply for Germany and Europe,” said
Niek den Hollander,
Uniper’s chief commercial officer.
Faced with a possible gas shortage and economically ruinous rationing, Germany also extended the usage of its last three nuclear power plants until April and reactivated coal power plants.
Helped by milder weather…
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