Germany accelerates LNG terminal plans

Germany will accelerate plans to build two LNG terminals. The terminals will be sited in Brunsbuttel (8 billion cu m/year (bmcy)) and Wilhelmshaven (7-8 bcmy). Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the move earlier this week in an address to the German Bundestag.

German LNG Terminal GmbH will build the terminal at Brunsbüttel. It will include a jetty with two berths for ships up to Q-Max size (266,000 cu m), distribution infrastructure for trucks, rail tank cars, and smaller ships, and two 165,000-cu m storage tanks.

Uniper SE in 2021 said it would repurpose its planned LNG terminal at Wilhelmshaven to hydrogen, under the name Green Wilhelmshaven (OGJ Online, Apr. 19, 2021). The changed natural gas supply dynamics on the European continent have altered these plans.

Scholz addressed this change in plans during his Feb. 27 remarks to the German Bundestag, noting that “an LNG terminal that today receives gas can tomorrow be used to import green hydrogen.”

Last week, Germany stopped the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia in response to its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Scholz opened his statement by describing the act as “a watershed in the history of our continent. With the attack on Ukraine, the Russian President Putin has started a war of aggression in cold blood.”

Nord Stream 2 is mechanically complete and filled with gas but was awaiting certification to begin deliveries.