German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday opened the country’s first floating liquid natural gas (LNG) plant, which will convert LNG back into gas to be used in domestic and industrial appliances.
The plant is anchored near the northern port city of Wilhelmshaven and the construction works were carried out in a record time of less than 10 months, Scholz said. These included the construction of pipelines.
“Our country is capable of a flying start,” Scholz said aboard a tourist vessel on which some 400 invited guests had gathered for the ceremony. The most important part of the entire installation is the floating LNG plant itself. The nearly 300-meter-long vessel “Höegh Esperanza” is a so-called Floating Storage Regasification Unit, or FSRU.
Related News
This converts LNG supplied by tankers back into gas, which is then fed into the gas pipeline. The unit is intended to keep the country’s supply sufficient since barely any Russian gas is now flowing into Germany.
Four more LNG terminals should be added by the end of next year in Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein), Stade (Lower Saxony), Lubmin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) and a second in Wilhelmshaven (Lower Saxony). Together, these plants could account for one-third of the nation's gas demand, the Ministry of Economy stated.
