TotalEnergies starts binding open season for Le Havre FSRU capacity

TotalEnergies LNG Services France (TELSF), an affiliate of French energy major TotalEnergies, has launched a binding open season to market long-term capacity in its floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in Le Havre, France.

As announced, the registration period for the open season starts on 28 March with 23 TWh per year for five years (2023-2028) being offered to the market.

The deadline for submission of binding requests has been set for 26 April 2023.

This is the second phase of the marketing campaign as TELSF is working on the installation of a new LNG import facility in Le Havre, in northern France, which is expected to start operations in September 2023.

The first phase ran from 16 to 30 January 2023 with a non-binding call of interest for LNG import and regasification capacity of up to 2.5 billion cubic metres per year to be made available at Le Havre FSRU.

At the end of the first phase, TELSF revealed that demand expressed during the market test significantly exceeded available capacity as several market players expressed a high level of interest in an aggregated amount close to 12 billion cubic metres per year in the five-year period.

Le Havre LNG terminal is a project initiated by TotalEnergies and the French Minister of Ecological Transition.

The FSRU project in Le Havre could allow France to increase its regasification capacity by around 5 billion cubic metres per year. This corresponds to the average annual gas consumption of more than four million households in France.