By Riham Alkousaa

BERLIN, April 7 (Reuters) - Germany's liquefied natural gas $(LNG)$ terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Mukran operated at 5% capacity in the first quarter of 2025, an analysis showed on Monday, amid ongoing local opposition and criticism over its environmental impact and excess capacity.

Germany has been expanding its natural gas import options to replace Russian pipeline supply and has deployed floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) at great speed, raising concerns over overcapacity.

Utilisation of the Mukran LNG terminal dropped to 5% in the first quarter from 14% a year earlier, when it was still operating in Lubmin, a port town near the border with Poland, according to German Environmental Aid (DUH) analysis of data by Gas Infrastructure Europe.

This compares with 49% and 83% utilisation rates at North Sea LNG terminals Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuettel, operated by state-owned Deutsche Energy Terminal GmbH (DET).

Marking its approval anniversary on April 9, DUH said the terminal fed only 1.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas into the grid last year, about 1.5% of Germany's total gas consumption.

"The Ruegen LNG terminal is not just a fossil dead end that seriously threatens the climate and our future, it is a bad investment that was foreseeable," Sascha Mueller-Kraenner, DUH managing director, said in a statement.

The project has triggered local opposition from the resort town of Binz, saying it was hurting tourism in one of top tourist attractions for Germans and harming marine life, but legal challenges have been thrown out.

Deutsche Regas, which operates the Mukran terminal, was not immediately available for comment on the numbers.

In February, Deutsche Regas announced the termination of the charter contract for Energos Power FSRU, citing competitive disadvantages to terminals operated by DET.

On Friday, Deutsche Regas launched a bidding round for long-term regasification capacity in Mukran, offering an additional 5 bcm per year from 2027 to 2043.

It also said it plans to restart a second FSRU, aiming to restore the terminal's full exit capacity of 13.5 bcm annually by 2027.

Mukran's capacity was not adjusted by Deutsche Regas even after the withdrawal of Energos Power, DUH said.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; editing by David Evans)

((Riham.Alkousaa@thomsonreuters.com;))