Scholz: Get through the winter
Next LNG terminal goes online
01/14/2023 5:29 p.m
LPG is intended to replace the Russian pipeline gas that Germany has long relied on. Chancellor Scholz inaugurates the second newly built import terminal – this time in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast. The third could follow in a few days.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has inaugurated another floating import terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Lubmin. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig was also there. Scholz released a gas line with a symbolic turn of a wheel on the ship “Neptune”. According to the company Regas, regular operation of the new plant is now starting.
“We’ll get through this winter, everyone notices it at home, the gas supply is not affected,” said the SPD politician at the inauguration. “There was also no economic crisis in Germany.” In addition to aid programs worth billions, securing the energy supply is also a reason for this. “The prices for gas on the world markets are also falling here in Europe, including in Germany.”
The government had already given some thought to what would happen if Russia stopped supplying gas. Scholz spoke of a new “Germany pace”, which was also decisive for the quick completion of the Lubmin LNG terminal. After the terminal in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, it is the second German LNG terminal that is now operational.
Another terminal will open next week
“And it will continue next week in Brunsbüttel, where we will also see that a ship that is necessary for regasification arrives there,” announced Scholz. Germany relies, among other things, on LNG to replace the lack of Russian gas supplies and is building its own infrastructure in a hurry.
“Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is making its contribution to energy security,” said Prime Minister Schwesig. “This is an important signal for people throughout Germany.” The governments would “do everything to ensure that we have enough energy and that energy remains affordable,” said the SPD politician.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck from the Greens did not take part in the event due to illness. He was represented by the parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner.
Lubmin can cover five percent of the demand
The first German LNG terminal was opened in Wilhelmshaven in December. Unlike the terminal ship there, which the federal government has chartered, the facility in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea is operated purely privately. Above all, it is intended to supply eastern Germany with up to 5.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. According to the company, this is enough to cover five percent of German demand.
Lubmin is also the end point of the German-Russian natural gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2, which were blown up by unknown persons last autumn. However, Russia had previously stopped the gas supply. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer from the CDU demanded in the newspapers of the Funke media group that Nord Stream 1 be repaired regardless of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.