Dhe European Union and Germany in particular would like to purchase huge amounts of liquid natural gas (LNG) from all over the world in the future. Supply contracts with Qatar and the United States have already been concluded, and other countries will certainly follow. This is intended to reduce dependency on energy supplies from Russia. But while the Russian gas flows through existing pipelines, a completely new infrastructure has to be built at the ports for liquid gas.
Germany gets its liquefied gas from ports in Zeebrugge, Belgium, Dunkirk, France, and Gate, the Netherlands. However, this will not be sufficient for the quantities that will be required in the future. Although special LNG terminals are already being planned in Wilhelmshaven, Stade and Brunsbüttel, they are still a long way off. German politics relied on Russia instead of building its own infrastructure like other European countries have done. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, it was assumed that the approval process would take at least a year before construction could begin – far too long to quickly become independent from Russia.
But there is an alternative that other European countries have already had experience with, floating LNG terminals, so-called FRSU (“Floating storage and regasification unit”): These are special ships anchored in front of the ports for handling liquid gas tankers. They serve as intermediate storage for the liquefied gas, which has been cooled to minus 162 degrees and is then vaporized in order to feed it into the natural gas pipeline network. According to industry circles, around forty of these mostly around 350 meter long Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FRSU) are available at relatively short notice.
Read here what the EU’s liquefied gas deal with the USA looks like.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) emphasized that the RWE and Uniper groups had already succeeded in securing options for three floating special ships for the landing and re-gasification of liquid gas on behalf of the government. But that’s not enough: New pipelines also have to be laid and connected to the feed points. In this context, it is less the construction than the environmental impact assessments and approval procedures that are considered to be a possible bottleneck. Habeck has not yet commented on the locations – but there is much to suggest that Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel will be among them.
For Brunsbüttel there is already a declaration of intent from RWE, the Dutch Gasunie and the development bank KfW to build an LNG port facility. And Uniper is ready in Wilhelmshaven and could fall back on earlier plans: the group had already agreed to rent an LNG terminal ship with the Japanese sea transport company MOL. A South Korean shipyard was to build the ship for the MOL. However, due to a lack of customer interest and a lack of political support for the additional import capacity, the project was shelved in autumn 2020.
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