For the new German liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal that opened in mid-January at Lubmin on the Baltic seacoast, French energy and petrochemicals producer TotalEnergies (Paris; www.totalenergies.com) has secured annual capacity to regasify 2.6 bn cbm.

After agreeing on the volume in October 2022, ahead of the 14 January inauguration of the facility operated by a new private company, Deutsche ReGas (Lubmin; www.deutsche-regas.de), the energy group in December delivered a floating storage and regasification vessel with annual capacity of 5 bn cbm, which it deems sufficient to meet about 5% of Germany’s expected demand.

The French player said it plans to “steadily provide” LNG from its worldwide assets toward becoming one of the main suppliers of the regasification facilities that will soon be at the German coastline and replace the now-defunct Russian pipelines.

Since the start of the energy crisis of “historic dimensions”, TotalEnergies said it has continuously mobilised its portfolio to ship LNG to Europe and use its available 18 mn t/y regasification capacity. With the opening of Lubmin, it plans to increase deliveries to more than 20 mn t/y, or 15% of Europe’s annual regasification needs.

Ingo Wagner, founder, partner, and managing director of Deutsche Regas, said the gas output from Lubmin has been earmarked to supply utility companies and their customers in eastern Germany.

TotalEnergies regards itself as the world’s third largest LNG player with a market share of around 10% and a global portfolio of about 40 mn t/y. Up to 2030, the group said its aim is to increase the share of natural gas in its sales mix to 50% and work with local partners to promote the transition from coal to natural gas.