MOL Signs Charter for Second FSRU at German LNG Terminal

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 29, Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and German energy infrastructure operator Deutsche ReGas signed a long-term charter contract in Tokyo for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). The existing LNG carrier is planned to be converted by China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group and deployed from 2028 to the "German Baltic" LNG terminal at Mukran Port, Germany. Once the additional unit is commissioned, the terminal will return to a two-FSRU operating configuration, with an approved annual regasification capacity of 13.5 billion cubic meters.

Under the contract arrangement, MOL is responsible for providing the LNG carrier and organizing the FSRU conversion, while Hudong-Zhonghua undertakes the vessel conversion work. After conversion is completed, Deutsche ReGas will charter the unit from MOL on a long-term basis for deployment at the existing terminal at Mukran Port on Rügen Island, Germany. This project is MOL's first independently initiated project to convert an existing LNG carrier into an FSRU.

Deutsche ReGas currently operates one FSRU at Mukran Port. Under existing German permits, the terminal is allowed to deploy two FSRUs simultaneously, with a maximum annual natural gas regasification capacity of 13.5 billion cubic meters. The additional unit will be connected to the existing terminal as the second FSRU, utilizing the port's receiving facilities and natural gas pipeline system to supply gas to the German natural gas network.

The German operator plans to bring the additional unit into service in the winter of 2027–2028, while MOL's official announcement lists the start of the long-term charter as 2028. Deutsche ReGas CEO Ingo Wagner said in an interview with German media on October 29 that the charter contract runs until 2043, with a total contract value in the hundreds of millions of US dollars.

The Mukran terminal was configured in 2024 with two FSRUs, "Neptune" and "Energos Power." The charter for the latter was subsequently terminated, and the terminal shifted to single-vessel operation. The newly signed charter will replace the previously withdrawn second FSRU with the converted vessel, restoring the original dual-vessel receiving and regasification configuration.