January 30, 2022 [The Mirage] – The ‘Deutsche Ostsee’ LNG import terminal, supported by Macquarie Capital, the corporate advisory, capital markets and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group, has now received its operating licence.
The project will play a critical role in supplying natural gas to Germany for this and future winters, with capacity to supply up to 5.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year, equivalent to five per cent of German domestic gas consumption in 20211.
Deutsche Ostsee, which delivered first volumes of natural gas earlier this month, was developed by Deutsche ReGas and is Germany’s first privately funded LNG terminal.
Macquarie Capital and its 100 per cent owned portfolio company, WaveCrest Energy, supported the project with two rounds of investment into Deutsche ReGas. In addition to providing development and construction capital to the project, WaveCrest integrated with the Deutsche ReGas team to help bring the terminal to successful completion by providing critical technical, operational and commercial capabilities.
Following this support, the first phase of the terminal project, a floating storage and regasification unit (“FSRU”), small-scale LNG shuttle vessels, and other associated infrastructure, are in the final stages of commissioning. The project utilises existing port and natural gas network infrastructure to minimise its direct environmental impact.
The German Government is committed to diversifying its natural gas supplies, ensuring energy security and reliable access to natural gas – and the Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Parliamentary State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Michael Kellner attended the opening ceremony of the project.
Last year, the German government passed the LNG Acceleration Act to accelerate the deployment of LNG regasification terminals in the country.
Macquarie Capital and WaveCrest will continue to look for further opportunities to work with Deutsche ReGas as the business looks to more than double the Ostee terminal’s regasification capacity by 2025. Deutsche ReGas is currently planning to install a second floating LNG terminal by the end of 2023 which, alongside a number of potential capacity upgrades, could increase import capacity up to 13.5 bcm of natural gas per year.
This would make the potential import capacity of the terminal equivalent to over 14 per cent of Germany’s 2021 domestic gas consumption, and over a third of Germany’s forecast LNG import capacity in 2024.
“We would like to thank Macquarie Capital and the WaveCrest team for supporting our project. With their expertise, they played a significant role in enabling us to officially open the LNG terminal on 14 January. We hope for further successful cooperation,” says Dr Stephan Knabe, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche ReGas.
“By working with Deutsche ReGas, we have helped develop a vital new energy supply solution for Germany. In these challenging times, we need sustainable, pragmatic, and timely energy solutions, and we will continue to look for opportunities to support other important energy projects like ‘Deutsche Ostsee’,” said Nicholas Gole, Senior Managing Director at Macquarie Capital.
“WaveCrest Energy is pleased to be part of such a technically challenging and economically important project for Germany. We are well positioned to provide smart capital to projects by combining the strength of our owner, Macquarie Capital, with our team’s industry-leading expertise.” said Rob Bryngelson, WaveCrest CEO
WaveCrest Energy is a Macquarie Capital’s portfolio company created in 2021 and is led by one of the most experienced management teams in the LNG regasification and FSRU sector, who have completed 13 floating LNG projects over 15 years.
WaveCrest’s development remit allows the company to enter projects at an early stage, while providing the ability to integrate incremental opportunities across the LNG value chain including regasification, liquefaction, LNG supply, power generation, bunkering, regional distribution and other downstream services and infrastructure.
This is WaveCrest’s first investment, and it is looking for further regas projects to support in Europe, Latin America and Asia.
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