Spanish engineering and construction companies will be in charge of building two of the three regasification plants planned in Germany to inject the liquefied natural gas (LNG) that arrives by ship into the network and thus compensate for the supply cut from Russia. Their experience in Spain, which, with six regasification plants, is by far the leading European country in these facilities, has now allowed them to enter into projects of very high strategic value.
Técnicas Reunidas and FCC announced on Tuesday the award, together with the Entrade group, a subsidiary of the Turkish company Enka, of a contract to build a regasification plant in Germany for close to 1,000 million euros. The project has been tendered by the Hanseatic Energy Hub company and is located in the port of Stade, in the Haburg region.
This terminal will be built next to a plant of the chemical giant Dow Chemical to take advantage of its industrial heat. It will go up at full speed, with the aim of having the engineering completed in five months and putting it into operation in three years.
At the end of last year, the Basque company Sener y Cobra, a former subsidiary of ACS sold to Vinci, was awarded the construction of the first of the terminals tendered in the country to respond to the Russian gas cut, the one in Brünsbuttel.
The two terminals entrusted to Spanish companies add up to about 20 bcm (20,000 million cubic meters of gas) per year, compared to the 84 bcm consumed by Germany in 2021, before the invasion of Ukraine, most of it coming from Russia. . There is a third project in the country, which is the Wilhelmshaven plant, where up to 30 bcm could be processed.
On a provisional basis, the German government is using four ships as floating regasification plants, which convert LNG arriving by sea at 160 degrees below zero from liquid to gas. When injected into the network, the volume is multiplied by 600.
After the outbreak of the war and the cut off in the supply of raw materials from Russia, Spain has become a key part of the continent's energy structure. During 2022, it has become a born exporter of liquefied natural gas thanks to the supply capacity provided by the six regasification plants it has. The international experience and knowledge of its construction companies will now also be key to launching the infrastructures with which Germany seeks self-sufficiency.
