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Arrival of the terminal ship Neptune (photo from November 2022): big goals
Photo: Stefan Sauer / dpa
The first German terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) went online in Wilhelmshaven in December, and now the second terminal in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea is following: The facility went into operation on Friday, according to the French energy group TotalEnergies, which jointly owns the facility operates with the Lubminer company Regas.
TotalEnergies will also supply the plant and thus become "one of the most important LNG suppliers for Germany," the group said.
The inauguration of the terminal is planned for Saturday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) are expected in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) will also be there.
In the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the federal government is pushing ahead with the development of an import infrastructure for LNG and has massively relaxed the approval procedures for this.
The government itself has chartered five floating LNG terminals.
One of them went into operation in Wilhelmshaven in December.
The liquefied gas is delivered by ship.
The plant in Lubmin is privately operated by the local company Deutsche Regas together with TotalEnergies.
Above all, it is intended to supply eastern Germany with up to 5.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
According to TotalEnergies, this is enough to cover five percent of Germany's demand.
As in Wilhelmshaven, environmentalists have criticized the project a lot.
"The accelerated procedures are at the expense of care and the environment," explained the WWF.
"Considerable additional shipping traffic" is being created in Lubmin, which is having a massive impact on the marine environment.
"The energy crisis is temporary, but the damage to the marine environment is permanent."
The German Environmental Aid (DUH) wants to take legal action against the LNG plants in both Wilhelmshaven and Lubmin and criticizes errors in the approval procedures.
The environmental organizations generally criticize the massive expansion of the infrastructure for a fossil energy source such as natural gas as oversized and contrary to the climate protection goals of the federal government.
Imports of LNG to Europe last year increased by 60 percent compared to the previous year, according to the think tank Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The majority came from the United States, which increased its deliveries by 143 percent.
Qatar delivered 23 percent more and Russian LNG deliveries also increased by 12 percent.
The first gas for the terminal in Lubmin comes from Egypt.
Some of the imported liquefied gas is fracked.
The Federal Association of Natural Gas, Oil and Geoenergy (BVEG) called for the fracking ban in Germany to be lifted.
Gas could therefore be promoted using the controversial technology in Germany itself at competitive conditions.
"We consider an annual funding of ten billion cubic meters or more to be realistic, depending on the political will," said BVEG board member Ludwig Möhring of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
The issue is politically sensitive.
The SPD and the Greens strictly reject fracking – the production of gas using chemicals from shale rock.
The FDP wants to allow the method and at least check its efficiency in Germany in order to secure new energy sources.
The Union is also open to this.
mic/AFP
