Enlarge image
Olaf Scholz in Wilhemshafen: "Our country knows how to set off and move fast"
Photo: Pool/Getty Images
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has opened Germany's first liquefied natural gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven.
The construction in the record time of almost ten months shows: "Our country can set off and speed up," said the SPD politician on Saturday at the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) took part.
"This is the new German pace," added Scholz, adding that by the end of 2023 Germany would have import capacities of over 30 billion cubic meters of gas.
Scholz' party colleague Weil apparently felt compelled to counter the Chancellor's quote with his own crisp statement shortly afterwards: "Personally, I could have thought of the word 'Lower Saxony' speed," said Weil, with a view to the fact that the North Sea coast was now the first LNG terminal was completed and connected to the gas network after just 194 days of planning and construction.
more on the subject
SPIEGEL climate report: Is Habeck wrong? By Kurt Stukenberg, Head of Science
Energy crisis: How the new LNG terminals should supply Germany with gasBy Luana Partimo and Claus Hecking
Robert Habeck and the Energy Crisis: The Green Gas MinisterBy Claus Hecking, Benedikt Müller-Arnold, Stefan Schultz and Gerald Traufetter
The floating terminal off the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony is intended to help close the gap in Germany's gas supply caused by the lack of deliveries from Russia.
The Chancellor on the pleasure boat
The heart of the terminal is the almost 300-meter-long special ship “Höegh Esperanza”, which will in future convert the liquefied natural gas delivered by tankers into the gaseous state and feed it into the German gas network.
Scholz opened the terminal from the "Helgoland" excursion ship, which normally transports tourists.
Around 400 guests attended the ceremony on the ship.
Four more terminals are to be built by the end of next year: one each in Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein), Stade (Lower Saxony) and Lubmin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) - and another in Wilhelmshaven.
According to the Economics Ministry, together they can absorb a third of the natural gas volume required to supply Germany.
Terminal costs could triple
Scholz gave the go-ahead for the construction of the terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel on February 27, three days after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Recently, SPIEGEL research had shown that the costs for the LNG terminals could be three times as high as originally estimated by the federal government.
