France’s newest liquefied natural gas terminal missed out on high fuel prices this winter as prohibitive operational costs have forced it to lie idle.

Only about 2% of last year’s French LNG imports came through the floating storage and regasification unit in the port of Le Havre, which TotalEnergies SE commissioned in 2023, according to ship-tracking and port data compiled by Bloomberg. Even the French energy company — which booked half of the terminal’s capacity — hasn’t been using it recently, with the last LNG cargo arriving there last June.

Total was authorized to operate the terminal for five years, citing the need to boost supply security after Europe’s worst energy crisis in decades. While European gas prices have eased significantly from peaks in 2022, they remain elevated and are about 40% higher than a year ago.

The Le Havre terminal’s role is to ensure, as long as deemed necessary, the security of energy supply of France and the European Union, so its use rate is not relevant, TotalEnergies said.

Floating terminals in Germany have been facing similar issues — they’ve been receiving LNG cargoes at much lower levels compared to onshore facilities in the neighboring countries. It’s more expensive to operate floating units, especially in the winter.

The Le Havre terminal — able to import up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas, or around 10% of French consumption — has been significantly less competitive to use than other European terminals, said Qasim Afghan, a commercial analyst at Spark Commodities Pte Ltd., which compiles data on regasification costs in Europe.

Total, which has been expanding its LNG business for years, also has capacity bookings at other terminals in Europe — including in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands — according to its reports.

Some industry groups have warned that Europe risks facing a glut of LNG terminals. The Le Havre floating unit was planned by the government to secure gas transit to neighboring countries, but apparently they don’t need those volumes now, said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, lead energy analyst for Europe at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

If demand keeps decreasing, there’s a high possibility France’s LNG investments will become redundant, Jaller-Makarewicz said.

French LNG imports fell 14% last year, mostly thanks to increased nuclear and renewable power output, but rebounded nearly 17% year-on-year in the first two months of 2025 as overall European demand increased, according to ship-tracking data.

Germany is looking at ways to use its surplus regasification capacities and is in talks with Egypt on leasing an LNG unit on the Baltic Sea to the North African nation before its gas demand spikes in the summer. In Le Havre, there are plans to expand LNG bunkering operations, with a fuel supplier Titan Clean Fuels last month receiving a permanent truck-to-ship bunkering license.

---

Elena Mazneva and Anna Shiryaevskaya, Bloomberg News

--With assistance from Francois de Beaupuy.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.