(Bloomberg) -- Germany signed contracts to charter four floating terminals to import liquefied natural gas in partnership with utilities RWE AG and Uniper SE as it races to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

Shipping companies Hoegh LNG and Dynagas will each provide two of the LNG terminals -- which each have the capacity to convert 5 billion cubic meters of the super-cooled gas per year -- and RWE and Uniper will operate them, the economy ministry said Thursday in an emailed statement.

“Today, more than ever, we have to base our energy supply on more robust pillars,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in the statement.

European countries are seeking to rapidly diversify their energy supplies to punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow last month unexpectedly cut off gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria due to a payments dispute, underscoring the urgency of the task of reducing dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

Germany has already cut the share of Russian gas in its imports to about 35% since the invasion of Ukraine, from around half, and is aiming to reduce it to 10% by the summer of 2024. It has also signed up to European Union embargos on Russian oil and coal that will take effect through the rest of this year.

The government has allocated 2.94 billion euros ($3.1 billion) to pay for the floating LNG terminals and for the necessary infrastructure to connect them to the network, the economy ministry confirmed.

The plan is for the first terminal to go online at Wilhelmshaven on Germany’s northwest coast around the end of this year, with another up and running in Brunsbuettel in early 2023. Other locations under consideration include Stade, Rostock, Hamburg and Eemshaven in the Netherlands.

Germany, which needs about 95 million cubic meters of gas per year, currently has no LNG terminals of its own, and those in neighboring countries like the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Poland don’t have enough capacity.

Over the longer term, Germany is also planning to build fixed LNG terminals that are expected to come online by 2026.

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