Tuesday, June 26, 2007
RWE Expands Position in European Gas Market
June 26, 2007
Essen
RWE is continuing its growth strategy for the European gas market. The Group plans to develop an import facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany.
RWE Gas Midstream is leading the project, with two other companies, US-based Excelerate Energy (Excelerate) and Nord-West Oelleitung GmbH (NWO), as partners. As has already been done in Teesside in the UK, the project partners want to utilise the special Excelerate technology at a new German GasPort™. This technology enables not only the transportation of LNG on Excelerate vessels but also the direct supply of natural gas into the pipeline network after LNG regasification on board. The Excelerate technology is highly cost-effective as it does not require investment in LNG regasification infrastructure on land.
“It is our aim to significantly strengthen our position in the gas business”, says Harry Roels, CEO of RWE AG, “and to ensure Germany has access to multiple sources of gas to guarantee security of supply. A German GasPort meets both of these objectives.”
This GasPort™ will introduce the Excelerate technology in Germany for the first time. The aim is to have the ability to feed up to 600,000 m3 per hour of regasified LNG into the German network by the end of 2010. By way of comparison, an average family house uses some 2,200 m3 of gas per year. The project is based on an agreement between RWE and Excelerate on the joint development of LNG import facilities in Europe. In Teesside, an Excelerate GasPort™ like the one planned in Wilhelmshaven has been operational since February 2007, and it is from here that RWE Trading brings the delivered gas to the UK market. The key advantage of the GasPortconcept is the very flexible delivery of gas during times of peak demand.
“We are very pleased that the relationship established between Excelerate and RWE now affords us the opportunity to bring our GasPort and Energy Bridge technologies to Germany”, said Kathleen Eisbrenner, CEO of Excelerate Energy. “The German GasPort will further serve our goal of providing producers and consumers alike cost effective alternatives to the traditional LNG distribution model.”
The technical prerequisites and the economic prospects of this kind of gas facility in the deepwater port of Wilhelmshaven will be examined during the next months. The project is still subject to securing permissions which will be issued by various authorities concerning marine, environmental and pipeline connection matters.
