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Scholz wants LNG terminals to be built quickly

2022-02-27T17:06:30.328Z


Scholz wants LNG terminals to be built quickly Created: 02/27/2022, 17:54 LNG terminal in the port of Rotterdam. Now such systems for liquid gas are also to be built in Germany. © Federico Gambarini/dpa German access to liquefied natural gas has been under discussion for a long time in order to reduce the high dependency on supplies from Russia. As a result of the Ukraine war, the plans are now


Scholz wants LNG terminals to be built quickly

Created: 02/27/2022, 17:54

LNG terminal in the port of Rotterdam.

Now such systems for liquid gas are also to be built in Germany.

© Federico Gambarini/dpa

German access to liquefied natural gas has been under discussion for a long time in order to reduce the high dependency on supplies from Russia.

As a result of the Ukraine war, the plans are now to be accelerated.

Berlin - Germany's energy supply is to become less dependent on Russian natural gas as a reaction to the war in Ukraine - also with its own terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a special session of the Bundestag on Sunday that the federal government had made the decision to quickly build two LNG reception points in Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea.

"We will change course in order to overcome our import dependency on individual energy suppliers."

However, one consequence of the change of course could be higher energy prices because LNG is more expensive than Russian natural gas.

The coalition had already decided on a relief package because of inflation.

Scholz announced possible further measures.

The federal government is keeping an eye on the high energy prices, he assured in Berlin.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck said that Germany had not been careful enough about the dependency it had become due to the high oil, gas and coal imports from Russia.

He now wants to present an “exit plan” from fossil fuels.

Supply has become a national security issue.

According to Habeck's plans, the cabinet is to present comprehensive measures by Easter for a faster expansion of the green electricity supply in Germany.

There are currently many obstacles.

Habeck had already announced that he wanted to push ahead with the construction of his own German LNG terminal.

A paper from the ministry said that financial state support was to be examined.

The plant must be built in such a way that it is "hydrogen-ready".

This means that in future it can also be used to handle climate-friendly hydrogen.

Above all, this is an important storage medium in the energy transition, but it must first be released from connections using a lot of electricity.

There are many terminals in the EU for LNG, which comes from the USA or Qatar, for example - but so far none of their own in Germany.

There have been plans for a long time.

However, the gas industry complained about the inadequate framework conditions for investments.

Brunsbüttel, Wilhelmshaven and Stade west of Hamburg were under discussion as locations for an LNG terminal.

It is unclear why Scholz no longer mentioned Stade.

The commitment to Wilhelmshaven may also come as a surprise to some, because the Düsseldorf energy company Uniper had shelved earlier plans for the city with a deep-water port on the Jade Bay.

Instead, the focus should ultimately be on using hydrogen from ammonia - the element is then to be forwarded, among other things, to the production of low-CO2 steel.

According to information from the "Handelsblatt", the federal government asked the company to reactivate its project for LNG intake in Wilhelmshaven.

LNG is refrigerated under pressure, transported in liquid form by ship, landed, heated, "regasified" and then fed into the grids.

Environmental groups are against a German LNG terminal.

"Climate-damaging fracking gas is not an answer to a secure energy supply, but part of the fossil dead end," Greenpeace energy expert Gerald Neubauer criticized.

The climate protection movement Fridays for Future was also critical on Sunday.

Lower Saxony's Energy Minister Olaf Lies, on the other hand, said that the state government would do everything possible to advance the planning together with the city of Wilhelmshaven and the federal government.

“There is no longer any doubt that imports from Russia can no longer form the basis of our security of supply.

(...) The alternative is to get stuck on the drip of Russian supplies.” He thinks it is realistic that the first LNG supplies could arrive in 2024.

Lies indicated that the plans would be speeded up.

Scholz also said that a coal and gas reserve should be built up in Germany.

Habeck had already announced this.

So far there is a state oil reserve in Germany.

The Chancellor went on to say that the federal government had decided to increase the storage volume of natural gas by two billion cubic meters via so-called long-term options.

In addition, additional natural gas is to be purchased on the world markets - coupled back with the EU.

The gas storage tanks were comparatively low this winter - in Germany the levels were just under 30 percent.

One reason was that Russia's state-owned company Gazprom no longer fills up its storage facilities in Germany.

The energy industry assumes that it will be able to meet its gas delivery obligations this winter - independently of Russia, according to the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries.

In Europe there are also security mechanisms for bottleneck situations.

At the moment, Europe is also increasingly purchasing liquefied natural gas via large tankers from the USA and Qatar.

There and in Australia in particular, producers are able to expand their supply at short notice.

It is therefore possible to purchase additional quantities of liquefied natural gas - albeit at likely high prices.

"But global demand and the availability of terminals and transport lines could turn out to be bottlenecks." dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-02-27

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