Germany’s 1st LNG terminal is ready for operation, Scholz says

BERLIN (AA) - Germany’s first liquefied natural gas terminal is ready for operation and the first tanker carrying LNG will arrive this week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday.

Delivering a speech at the parliament, Scholz said Germany and its EU partners are taking all the necessary steps to diversify gas supplies to end their dependency on Russian energy imports.

“Europe’s security also means Europe’s energy security. There’s no other sector where we have made so much progress, so fast,” Scholz told lawmakers.

“Nothing proves this more clearly than the fact that we will be opening our first floating LNG gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven on Saturday. We’ve started building it in July, and this first LNG terminal is now ready to go online,” he added.

Scholz said within this week the first tanker carrying LNG will also arrive at the Wilhelmshaven terminal.

He stressed that Germany is well-placed to get through this winter and has plans to avoid energy shortage in the coming months.

The German government is trying to diversify its natural gas supply sources by purchasing more gas from Norway and increasing imports via pipelines from Belgium and the Netherlands.

To receive enough LNG to replace Russian gas entirely in the coming years, Berlin is also building LNG terminals at the northern German ports of Brunsbuttel, Stade, and Lubmin.

Before the start of the war in Ukraine in February, Russia was supplying 55% of Germany’s natural gas.

Since the explosions in the Nord Stream undersea pipelines in September, Germany has been importing no gas from Russia.