The pipe-laying ship planned for the construction of the controversial Rügen liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal has arrived on the coast of Rügen. The “Castoro 10” was towed into the port of Mukran. The gas network operator Gascade announced that it should be prepared here for later use.
The pipe-laying vessel is to lay the approximately 50-kilometer offshore pipeline from the Lubmin gas hub through the Greifswalder Bodden around the south-east of Rügen to Mukran. At the initiative of the federal government, two special ships are to be stationed there, which will take in LNG, bring it back into the gaseous state and feed it into the gas network via the connection line.
The Schedule
According to Gascade, among other things, the remaining assembly work on the “Castoro 10” was to take place in Mukran. About a week later, the ship is to be pulled into the Bodden and set anchor off Lubmin. The pipeline is then to be pulled through the already built micro-tunnel of the landing point there.
The schedule for the LNG terminal is ambitious. The federal government is aiming for it to be operational by the coming winter. It is important for the security of energy supply, even in the event of a cold winter or if other delivery routes fail. Critics, on the other hand, speak of unnecessary overcapacity.
Again and again criticism
It was only on Friday that the municipality of Binz announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig against the most recent approval for the first lake section of the connection pipeline and had applied for an immediate halt to construction. The second lake section has not yet been approved.
Most recently, there has also been criticism of the ongoing construction work from the Schwerin Ministry of the Environment. In addition, the state associations of the Federal Government for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany, the Nature Conservation Union Germany and the WWF called for an immediate halt to construction.
