Planned application for summer: the long way to the LNG terminal in Stade

LPG aims to reduce Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas. However, till now it has not been possible to import LNG directly. Now plans are taking shape for the first liquefied gas terminal in the Federal Republic.

Germany’s first terminal for LNG (liquefied natural gas) is to be built in Stadt, Lower Saxony. According to its managing partner Johann Killinger, Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH (HEH) is looking to submit application documents for the billion-euro project in the Hanseatic city this summer.

As of now there is not a single LNG terminal in Germany. Direct imports of liquefied gas from countries such as Qatar and the United States have so far not been possible for the Federal Republic, although the importance of LNG as an alternative to Russian gas exports has grown in discussion since the situation in Ukraine. Ahead.

Planting plans at Stadt and Brunsbüttel have been on the table for years. But German politics relied on the Russian partner rather than building additional infrastructure to import liquefied gas, as was done in many other European countries.

What is LNG?

LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is the name for liquefied natural gas. To obtain LNG, natural gas is cleaned of sulfur, nitrogen and carbon dioxide and cooled to a temperature of -162 °C. This makes natural gas liquefied. This process reduces the volume by a factor of 600, meaning that much larger quantities of liquefied energy carriers can be stored and transported.

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The approval process should take at least one year

Now the plan of the plant in Stade is getting more solid, but the approval process may take at least one to one and a half years. “Then the building begins,” said Johann Killinger of the German Press Agency. It will take years before the plant on the Elbe is ready for use and Germany still will not be able to import LNG directly. Instead, German energy suppliers have to use terminals in Zeebrugge (Belgium), Dunkirk (France) and Gaet (Netherlands) for the delivery of liquefied gas.

In all, there are already 26 LNG terminals in EU member states, the use of which can be further expanded. European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the European Union (EU) could compensate for a temporary blockage in Russian natural gas supplies by increasing imports of liquefied gas. There are growing fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin may cut gas supplies to Europe in response to EU sanctions in the Ukraine crisis.

Therefore the EU has talked with important LNG suppliers about increasing gas and liquefied gas distribution. “These efforts are clearly paying off now,” von der Leyen said. Infrastructure development in recent years has also meant that Europe is better equipped to distribute gas and electricity between countries. Germany is particularly likely to depend on it in emergencies, as more than 50 percent of its gas requirement is covered by Russian natural gas.

The cost of the terminal at Stade is 800 million . Is

To avoid dependence, Chancellor Olaf Scholz in early February spoke in favor of building LNG terminals in Germany. In addition to the location in Lower Saxony, a terminal is also planned at Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein. However, there too no concrete application document has been submitted. Furthermore, almost four years after the project was submitted, there is still no date for a final investment decision. A spokesman for the carrier German LNG Terminals GmbH said last week: “In the times of the coronavirus pandemic, it is more difficult than ever to make credible statements about the exact timing of the project, so that we avoid doing the same thing as before.” According to earlier information, about 450 million euros can be spent on this project.

There is already an investment plan for the project in Stade: an investment of 800 million euros is currently planned for the terminal on the premises of the chemical group Dow Chemical. In addition, there are about 150 to 200 million euros for public port facilities.