German utility RWE Group announced Monday that it has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business of Excelerate Energy LLC for an estimated $500 million.

RWE Supply & Trading, which is responsible for RWE Group’s LNG business, is buying the 50% interest from Excelerate Energy owner George B. Kaiser, who will own the remaining half of the company. Excelerate Energy, which confirmed the completion of the transaction, said its management and staff would remain in place.

The transaction, which was first announced in February, hinged on Excelerate Energy starting its Northeast Gateway terminal off the coast of Massachusetts, Reuters reported (see Daily GPI, Feb. 15). Excelerate’s Northeast Gateway offshore system began commercial operation in late May (see Daily GPI, May 20). It was the the first new LNG receiving terminal to be built on the U.S. East Coast in more than 30 years.

The partnership will combine the upstream equity assets of RWE, a major European integrated electricity and natural gas company, with Excelerate’s growing market access points, LNG infrastructure and proprietary technology, the two companies said.

Since it was formed in 2003, The Woodlands, TX-based Excelerate has shown some success utilizing proprietary technology allowing LNG to be regasified onboard specially designed regasification vessels. Excelerate currently has long-term charters for five operational LNG vessels, four of which are equipped with onboard regasification equipment, RWE said. The fleet will increase to at least eight vessels by 2010.

Excelerate’s LNG projects have been able to overcome hurdles that have tripped up some other LNG proposals. Excelerate’s Gulf Gateway Energy Bridge Deepwater Port, located offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, received its first LNG cargo in April 2005 (see Daily GPI, April 7, 2005). It was the world’s first offshore receiving facility and the first new LNG regasification facility in North America in over 20 years. Gulf Gateway is capable of delivering natural gas at a baseload rate of 500 MMcf/d, with peak rates up to 690 MMcf/d.

Excelerate also owns and manages the Teesside GasPort LNG facility in the United Kingdom.

RWE Group’s operations have been focused on Germany, the United Kingdom and Central Eastern Europe. The company’s activities include power generation, distribution, transmission and sales, and natural gas exploration, production and sales.

RWE is a partner in the Snohvit gas field in the Barents Sea, which began production last fall with some of the output bound for the United States in the form of LNG (see Daily GPI, Sept. 24, 2007). The Snohvit project, which is operated by Norway’s Statoil, was the first gas development in the Barents Sea and involved the construction of the first LNG plant in arctic conditions.

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