Wilhelmshaven gets another terminal for liquefied natural gas

Created: 09/02/2022, 11:30 am

By: Fabian Raddatz

Construction work is taking place on the future liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal.

© Sina Schuldt/dpa

Wilhelmshaven will get another floating terminal for landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) - the fifth LNG terminal in Germany leased by the state.

Wilhelmshaven – Imports of liquefied natural gas are intended to help secure Germany's energy supply if gas supplies from Russia fail to materialize.

But the infrastructure is still missing.

That is gradually changing – especially on the North Sea coast.

Wilhelmshaven is getting another floating terminal for landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) - it will be the fifth LNG terminal in Germany rented by the state.

The Federal Ministry of Economics announced this on Thursday in Berlin.

It is scheduled to go into operation in the winter after next, i.e. 2023/2024.

At the same time, the prospect of landing "green" hydrogen, which is produced with the help of green electricity, should also be created there.

This is reported by kreiszeitung.de.

Wilhelmshaven gets another terminal for liquefied natural gas: "Also suitable for future hydrogen imports"

"By importing liquefied natural gas, we are making ourselves less dependent on imports of Russian pipeline gas," said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).

"At the same time, we are building up the landing of green hydrogen in parallel, making Wilhelmshaven an important landing point for safe and sustainable energy in Europe."

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) emphasized that the state was playing a leading role.

Because in addition to the two terminals in Wilhelmshaven, an LNG terminal is also to be built in Stade.

“All LNG terminals in Lower Saxony are also suitable for future hydrogen imports.

That will be an essential basis, especially for the energy supply of our industry," said Weil.

LNG in Wilhelmhaven: transported in liquid form by ship at minus 162 degrees

The state's Energy Minister, Olaf Lies (SPD), said: "We are not only proving here that we are able to plan, approve and build the necessary infrastructure within a very short time.

Wilhelmshaven also offers the corresponding line capacity that we need to feed the gas into the German grid.”

In view of the increasingly uncertain Russian natural gas deliveries, the German government has been pushing the import of liquid gas for several months.

So far, however, the required terminals are missing.

LNG is frozen at minus 162 degrees, transported in liquid form by ship, landed, heated, regasified and then fed into the networks.

According to the ministry, the special ship that the federal government is renting for the Wilhelmshaven location has a capacity of at least 5 billion cubic meters per year and is scheduled to go into operation in the fourth quarter of next year, i.e. between October and December.

The owner, the company Excelerate, is said to operate the ship together with a consortium of Tree Energy Solutions (TES), Eon Green Gas and Engie.

Hydrogen terminal will probably start in 2025

The floating terminal will be chartered for five years, but will only be operated until the hydrogen terminal is up and running, Habeck said.

According to the consortium, this should probably be the case in the course of 2025, according to his ministry.

So far, four state-chartered LNG terminals have been planned.

Two floating systems - in Wilhelmshaven and in Brunsbüttel - are to go into operation at the turn of the year with a pipeline connection for onward transport.

According to the Ministry, an average capacity of at least 3.5 billion cubic meters per ship per year will be possible next winter.

After the construction and commissioning of a new, 55-kilometer-long gas pipeline, the capacity per ship can be increased to at least 5 billion cubic meters per year from the end of 2023.

Stade and Lubmin are to follow

These two terminals – the first in Wilhelmshaven and the one in Brunsbüttel – are to be operated by RWE and Uniper.

In order to fully utilize them, EnBW and the EnBW subsidiary VNG are also on board from the turn of the year 2023/2024 until the end of March 2024.

According to the ministry, the floating terminals at the Stade and Lubmin locations are expected to be available by the end of 2023.

In Stade it will be operated by Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH, in Lubmin by the companies RWE and Stena-Power.

The terminals there are to be operated until replacement systems go into operation on land, which should happen in 2026.

Another floating terminal is to be built in Lubmin by the end of 2022 by a private consortium with a capacity of 4.5 billion cubic meters per year.