Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Liquefied Natural Gas and Oil Prospecting: Discussion

Mr. Gergely Moln?r:

There is a question of how to de-risk the investment. For instance, in the Netherlands, for the Eemshaven terminal, which started operating last year, there had been contracts for difference facilitating this with the project developer. In other countries loans have been provided to the product developers.

What is common in both cases, both in Germany and the Netherlands, is that they opted for floating storage and regasification units, which again are flexible infrastructures. One can charter them for a period, which can vary between just a few years up to a long-term charter rate which can go beyond ten years. Then, once the charter agreement is finished, they can be diverted to other markets. They have this value of flexibility. One can also look at options for an onshore energy terminal but then one does not have this flexibility, and there are also very serious question marks about whether onshore energy terminals can be repurposed for hydrogen service. Most of the analysis shows that the options are quite limited in that respect.