FRANKFURT, March 21 (Reuters) - Backers of the LNG terminal in Germany's Elbe river port of Stade have taken a final decision to build a land-based terminal from 2027, costing around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), project firm Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH) said on Thursday.

The move is significant as part of Germany's long-term quest to increase LNG import capacity, which is later to be expressly used for green gases since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 forced it to find alternatives to Russian gas.

"Following the successful completion of marketing and approval at the end of 2023, the privately organised consortium, consisting of Partners Group, Enagas, Dow and the Buss Group, have now successfully secured the financing," HEH said in a statement.

Partners Group was acting on behalf of its customers, it said.

Enagas is a Spanish grid operator and Buss a logistics firm while Dow Chemicals has a site in the vicinity.

The official groundbreaking ceremony is due to take place in the coming weeks, it added.

A first floating regasification vessel (FSRU) arrived at Stade for test operations earlier this month, which along with three others working at Wilhelmshaven, Brunsbuettel and Lubmin will be used for the regasification of LNG imports up until 2027.

Floating vessels were installed from 2022 when Russian gas flows dried up quickly but were viewed as an interim solution ahead of land-based facilities to provide a transition under Germany's decarbonisation strategies.

Stade will be equipped to handle LNG, synthetic natural gas and liquefied biomethane, later to be followed by ammonia, which can be used as a carrier for hydrogen whose low density can make transport complicated.

Czech utility CEZ, Germany's utility EnBW and importer SEFE have committed themselves as buyers of 90% Stade's annual volume capacity of 13.3 billion cubic metres.

($1 = 0.9162 euros)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by David Evans)