Germany Looks To Sublet LNG Ships After Contractual Disputes

By Petra Sorge

Mar 21, 2025 (Bloomberg) —Germany said it’s looking for partners to sub-charter some floating liquefied natural gas terminals after disputes and planning mishaps led to two contract cancellations in recent months.

“Talks are ongoing with potential interested parties to sub-rent the ships if we don’t need them anymore,” a spokesperson for the economy ministry said at a government press conference Friday. “It was never set in stone that we definitely would use these ships for ten years,” she added, referring to the timeframe agreed upon when they were first chartered in 2022. 

While Germany’s rapid construction of LNG terminals in the aftermath of the energy crisis is often touted as a rare engineering feat in the face of staggering bureaucracy, the problems it faced recently with two ships that were meant to operate along its Baltic and North Sea coasts signal the rollout hasn’t been easy.

The latest dispute involves the floating Stade LNG terminal near Hamburg, with the state-owned operator and the project developer accusing each other of failing to fulfill contract obligations.

Operator Deutsche Energy Terminal GmbH said it terminated the contract with Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH, which confirmed it, too, had ended the business relationship. The project was still under construction and hasn’t been used for gas imports yet.

It’s the second fallout in two months after one of two floating storage and regasification units operating on the island of Ruegen ended its charter contract with the government over a pricing dispute. The vessel “Energos Force” is temporarily anchored off Skagen in Denmark.

Across Europe, several LNG terminals set up hastily after the energy crisis have faced difficulties due to the high cost of running them. France’s newest liquefied natural gas terminal, commissioned by TotalEnergies SE in 2023, hasn’t received cargoes since last June,