Offshore LNG terminals in Europe.
Part 3. 
Spain, France, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium

15/04/2025

Offshore LNG terminals in Europe. Part 3.Spain, France, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium

Among the European leaders in developing LNG receiving capacities are countries such as Spain, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium. These countries have advanced terminals and infrastructure that allow them to efficiently handle large volumes of LNG.
These leading countries form the basis of the European strategy for the development of the LNG industry and play a key role in ensuring the energy security of the entire continent. In this review, we examine in detail the infrastructure of the LNG marine terminals of these countries.
It also provides statistics on the population of these countries, their needs for blue fuel, the resources by which they are met, consumption by sectors and the main suppliers of LNG are considered.
The development of the LNG market in Europe contributes not only to ensuring stable energy supplies, but also to strengthening the energy independence of the countries of the region, as well as promoting environmental initiatives.
However, this is a short-term solution in the process of transforming energy systems aimed at optimizing the sustainable transition of the energy infrastructure of Europe.
Despite this, in 2024, many LNG terminals in the European Union were operating below their full capacity, using only a small fraction of their capacity.
The utilisation rate of most of these facilities remained consistently low, reaching a maximum of 40% of their total throughput.
This situation affected even some of the recently commissioned FRSU floating terminals, which were originally designed to provide additional flexibility and reliability in gas supplies.
In the coming years, Spain, France, the Netherlands and other European countries will remain significantly dependent on gas imports. It is therefore critical to ensure sufficient capacity to import LNG, produce gas domestically and maintain reliable pipeline supplies, including cross-border grid interconnection, to ensure energy security.