Energy crisis: How LNG terminals should supply Germany with gas

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Getting out of dependence on Moscow and at the same time procuring enough substitutes for Russian natural gas - that has been the course taken by the federal government since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Floating jetties should now help to defuse the energy crisis.

Claus Hecking, DER SPIEGEL Wirtschaft: »At the moment three LNG terminals are being built in Germany for this winter and they are all expected to go into operation in the next few weeks.

An LNG terminal is now making Uniper, the group in Wilhelmshaven Uniper, known nationwide for the catastrophic losses that the company has suffered as a result of this failed Russian gas delivery.

The second terminal is in Brunsbüttel, which is being built by RWE, the other large German energy company.

And there is a third terminal that is due to open soon and that is in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea and these are private operators who do it.«

The terminal in Wilhelmshaven was completed last week and is scheduled to start feeding gas into the German pipeline network as early as January.

At full capacity, the three terminals should then cover around a fifth of Germany's annual LNG requirement.

But what exactly is LNG?

The abbreviation LNG stands for 'Liquified Natural Gas' – i.e. liquefied natural gas.

For this purpose, fossil natural gas is cooled down to minus 162 degrees.

During this process, it not only liquefies, but also shrinks to about a 600th of its volume.

It can then be filled into a special tanker and shipped from exporting countries such as the USA, Australia, Qatar or Algeria to its destination – the terminal.

There, the LNG is then regasified – that is, brought back into the gaseous state and then fed into the transmission network.

It would take about three LNG tankers to cover Germany's needs for one day.

In the future, the new terminals should primarily protect against one-sided dependency.

Claus Hecking, DER SPIEGEL Wirtschaft: “Having these LNG terminals gives us at least a certain degree of flexibility, so that we can procure gas from anywhere in the world when there is a need.

Or, we want to make them hydrogen-capable, so that we can then get the hydrogen from all over the world.

Because, in all probability, we will not be able to produce enough hydrogen in Germany, one should not delude oneself here either.

And in all probability, we will not be able to produce enough green hydrogen in Europe to cover our entire needs, but we will continue to be dependent on energy supplies from other countries, from other continents.«

However, the construction of new LNG terminals does not mean that sufficient tankers will automatically dock there.

The largest LNG buyers on the world market are Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and China.

They have not bought as much gas as usual this year because of their corona-weakened economy.

Claus Hecking, DER SPIEGEL Wirtschaft: "But it's possible that next year, for example if the Chinese economy picks up again, the Chinese will say, 'No, we need that too'.

And that there is then a tough cut-throat competition.

And then it is not said that we will get all the LNG.

Rather, these countries in Asia have often concluded long-term contracts with the large manufacturers, especially Qatar.

And then it could be that they say, 'No, we're not giving it away and we're not selling it either, we're keeping it to ourselves'.

And then it can happen that prices rise very, very high and that we may not get as much LNG as we would like or imagine.”

The construction of the terminal in Wilhelmshaven was already twice as expensive as originally planned.

Floating port terminals in the form of a so-called FSRU ship are rare - there are only a few dozen of them worldwide.

And the demand is increasing.

Because the piers are a quick temporary solution compared to stationary terminals.

Construction in Wilhelmshaven was completed in less than 200 days.

Claus Hecking, DER SPIEGEL Wirtschaft: »This shows that such large-scale projects can be implemented quickly if the will is there.

And I would like it to be the case with renewable energies as well.

There are still - especially in wind energy - there are a lot of projects that have problems with the permits and the procedures sometimes drag on for years.

And there, too, the federal government said, 'We want to push ahead with this now and we want to accelerate it now, the expansion of renewable energies'.

Yes, and then you should do it!"

Later there will also be stationary LNG terminals in Germany.

However, it is still unclear when that will be.