Germany’s entry into liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports is slowly but steadily becoming visible in the November fog over the Baltic Sea. On Wednesday, the “Neptune”, the first special ship for converting LNG into the gaseous state, arrived in a German port – for a stopover on the island of Rügen. From December it will be used as a floating terminal on the mainland in Lubmin near Greifswald.
Swimming terminals are also scheduled to open this year in Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony and in Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein. The terminal planned for Lubmin will be on the home stretch at the latest when the 280-metre-long “Neptune” arrives in the port of Mukran. Last week, the Federal Network Agency issued a special permit for other terminals, as before, so that the facility is exempt from certain regulations. The EU Commission still has to agree.
Ambitious schedule
According to the operating company Deutsche Regas, the ship should remain in Mukran until this approval has been obtained. Reserve fuel is to be pumped out here so that it can get to Lubmin through the relatively flat Greifswalder Bodden. The ship is the largest that has ever called at the port of Mukran.
The original plan was for the terminal to be operational as early as December 1st. According to Deutscher Regas, that would still be technically possible. The aim was to motivate the employees with the ambitious schedule. “It worked,” said the head of the supervisory board, Stephan Knabe, on Wednesday.
Up to 5.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas can be fed into the gas pipelines running through Lubmin via the terminal. Last year almost 60 billion cubic meters came via the German-Russian Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline, which has meanwhile been badly damaged and also arrives in Lubmin. Nevertheless, the amount is enough to supply around two million households, said Knabe.
Privately funded project
Also because pipeline gas no longer comes from Russia, at least directly, Germany has to look for alternatives and relies, among other things, on LNG terminals. In contrast to other planned locations, the “Neptune” was not leased by the federal government. According to Deutscher Regas, it is a purely privately financed project.
The ship arrived on Wednesday under high security precautions. In Mukran, the police were present with inflatable boats and divers, among other things. She had previously been accompanied by the “Bamberg”, a coast guard ship.
The ship has historically been used as an LNG transporter, according to French energy giant Total, which leases it. It is a so-called FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit), which not only stores the LNG, but can also heat it up and turn it into gas again. In the Lubmin industrial port, it is to be supplied via smaller shuttle ships that drive through the Greifswalder Bodden. These are to take the freight from a storage ship lying on the Baltic Sea, which in turn is to be supplied by tankers. Approval from the responsible state office is still pending. Objections can still be submitted until Monday.
