Germany making progress on LNG terminals

(15 Nov 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wilhelmshaven - 15 November 2022
1. Various of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminal
2. SOUNDBITE (German) Christian Janzen, project leader at the Wilhelmshaven terminal for gas importer Uniper:
"This terminal is a significant building block for Germany's supply security, with this, we can import about 8% of German natural gas consumption."
3. Various of LNG terminal construction
4. SOUNDBITE (German) Christian Janzen, project leader at the Wilhelmshaven terminal for gas importer Uniper:
"The capacity of the terminal is about 5 billion cubic metres and we expect that every week an LNG tanker will come, unload, vaporize and then the gas will be fed into the German natural gas grid."
5. Drone shot of LNG terminal
6. Worker walking at LNG terminal
7. SOUNDBITE (German) Christian Janzen, project leader at the Wilhelmshaven terminal for gas importer Uniper:
"With 5 billion cubic metres, it is possible to supply approximately 2 million to 5 million households with natural gas per year."
8. Various of LNG terminal
STORYLINE:
Germany on Tuesday marked the completion of port facilities at the first of five planned liquefied natural gas terminals it is scrambling to put in place to replace a Russian gas pipeline that once accounted for more than half its supply.
The site in the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven was one of two that the German government announced shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Construction work began in May.
Five such terminals are planned in total — part of a drive to prevent an energy crunch that also includes temporarily reactivating old oil- and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of Germany's last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of this year, until mid-April.
Germany also filled its gas storage facilities ahead of the winter, although officials stress that it is still necessary for households and businesses to conserve gas.
The next step in Wilhelmshaven will be the docking of a specially equipped ship, the so-called "Floating Storage and Regasification Unit."
Authorities hope that the terminal will be ready to start work and receive tankers full of LNG at the beginning of the new year.
Christian Janzen, the project leader at the Wilhelmshaven terminal for gas importer Uniper, said they expect one LNG tanker a week to arrive there to unload gas for the German domestic pipe network.
The terminal will have an annual capacity of about 5 billion cubic metres of gas and receive some 170,000 cubic metres per week, Janzen said.
"This terminal is a significant building block for Germany's supply security," he added. "With this, we can import about 8% of German natural gas consumption."
Four other LNG terminals are planned. At least one more terminal, at Brunsbuettel, also is expected to be ready around the turn of the year, with facilities in Stade, at Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast and a second terminal in Wilhelmshaven also on the way.
Gas is used to heat homes, power industry and generate electricity. It accounted for 11.7% of Germany's electricity generation in this year's first half, down from 14.4% a year earlier. Coal made up 31.4% of the energy mix, renewable energy sources 48.5% and nuclear power 6%.
The effort to make Germany independent of Russian gas was well under way before Russia started reducing supplies through the North Stream 1 pipeline, which was its main supply route, in mid-June. It cited technical problems that German officials dismissed as cover for a political decision to exert pressure on an ally of Ukraine.

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