LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven: start construction work

Created: 05/05/2022, 14:05

By: Fabian Raddatz

For the approximately 370 meter long jetty in Wilhelmshaven, 150 steel piles with a length of 50 meters have to be rammed into the seabed.

The liquefied natural gas is intended to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas.

© AFP

Construction work on the liquid gas terminal has started in Wilhelmshaven – in order to become more independent from Russia.

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm.

Wilhelmshaven – Now everything should go very quickly: While the plans were rejected last year, construction work for the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven began on Thursday, May 5, 2022.

With the floating terminal for liquefied natural gas, Germany wants to make itself less dependent on Russian natural gas.

LNG terminals can “replace 40 percent of Russian natural gas supplies,” it says.

"We have a good chance of doing what is actually impossible in Germany: building an LNG terminal within about ten months and connecting it to the German gas supply," said Habeck, who carried out the ramming from a ship pursued.

He was accompanied by Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) and Economics Minister Bernd Althusmann (CDU).

Lower Saxony wants LNG from Wilhelmshaven before next winter.

Start of construction for the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven: Germany's first own liquid gas import terminal

If possible, the first tankers with deep-frozen LNG should dock at the new pier by the end of this year, which will then be heated there.

The LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven is to be connected to the natural gas network.

The system is a so-called FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit).

Terminals for importing LNG are also planned at other locations in Germany, including Stade in Lower Saxony and Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein.

Germany does not yet have its own LNG import terminal.

Wilhelmshaven is a step ahead at the moment, but Brunsbüttel is just behind, according to Habeck.

The federal government should support the construction financially.

Lower Saxony's Energy Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) sees "accelerated procedures necessary" for the LNG terminals in Lower Saxony.

Another possible location: Stade in Lower Saxony.

And the plans are getting more concrete.

A US company has entered Stade.

LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven: environmentalists sound the alarm

The German Environmental Aid is demanding a construction freeze for the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven because this could endanger an underwater biotope and porpoises.

Habeck, on the other hand, warns against legal action against the accelerated construction of the plant in Wilhelmshaven.

In the "RTL Direct" program, the Greens politician said on Wednesday evening: "If we don't have the LNG terminals and if the gas doesn't come from Russia, the security of supply in Germany is not guaranteed." A lack of import capacities would then be a problem.

"In case of doubt, your lawsuit will make us more dependent on Putin," he said in the direction of environmental aid.

"You shouldn't do that at this point."

With the support of LNG projects in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel and possibly also in Stade, the federal government wants to ensure that there are alternatives to Russian pipeline natural gas in Germany as quickly as possible.

For the time being, floating terminals are to be installed for this purpose.

Habeck: "I love porpoises"

So far, the Federal Republic has been highly dependent on deliveries of the important raw material from the Russian Federation.

Lower Saxony's Economics Minister Althusmann Germany agrees on the "worst case" when it comes to stopping imports of Russian gas.

A Russian gas embargo would be a "huge fiasco" for the economy, says Volker Müller, Managing Director of the Lower Saxony Business Association (UVN).

Due to the high time pressure for a changeover, the state of Lower Saxony wants to greatly simplify and shorten the approval process if necessary - a point that also triggers criticism.

The Environmental Aid complained that the start of construction in Wilhelmshaven was approved without the disclosure of the documents and the participation of environmental organizations.

An objection was therefore lodged against the decision of the State Office for Water Management, Coastal Protection and Nature Conservation (NLWKN).

Has trouble with environmental aid because of the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven: Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).

(kreiszeitung.de montage) © Bernd von Jutrczenka/Sina Schuldt/dpa

Habeck emphasized that he understood the concerns of environmental aid in principle.

"I love porpoises, I come from the coast, I'm the biggest porpoise fan in the federal government." In the case of the LNG terminals, however, priority must be given to the overriding issue of energy security: "Here, environmental aid - don't do it."

Read: Environmental aid objection 'remarkably inappropriate'

Energy Minister Lies called the environmental aid's contradiction "remarkably inappropriate".

"A lot of people are working day and night under high pressure to ensure that Germany can get out of the Russian embrace as quickly as possible when it comes to gas," he told the German Press Agency.

Wilhelmshaven is to become “a hub for clean energy in Germany”.