“Germany on Saturday took further steps to cut reliance on Russian energy supplies by unveiling plans for a terminal to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), the latest sign of a policy shift in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
German state lender KfW has signed a memorandum of understanding with the country’s top power producer RWE and Dutch network operator Gasunie to build the terminal in the port town of Brunsbuettel, the Economy Ministry said.
The move comes a week after Germany announced a turnaround in its energy policy to cut dependence on Russian energy imports, saying LNG, coal, and even nuclear power could be used to plug the gap.
Germany, which heavily relies on Russia for gas and oil, has no LNG import terminals to date.
No investment figure was provided, but previous estimates were for 450 million euros ($492 million) to get an LNG terminal in Brunsbuettel off the ground.
The Economy Ministry said the terminal would have an annual capacity of 8 billion cubic meters and would be realized as quickly as possible.
State-owned KfW will take a 50% stake in exchange for a financial participation, the ministry said, while RWE said it will have a stake of 10% in the terminal. Gasunie, which will serve as the terminal’s operator, will hold the remaining 40%.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, while Germany’s goal was to create energy in a climate-neutral way, gas was needed as a fuel to manage the transition.
“It is necessary to reduce our dependence on Russian imports as quickly as possible,” the member of the Greens said in a statement.
“Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine makes this absolutely necessary. With an LNG terminal in Brunsbuettel, we are expanding import opportunities.”
Plans for an LNG terminal at Brunsbuettel were previously advanced by German LNG Terminal, a joint venture between Gasunie, tank storage firm Vopak and Oiltanking GmbH.
German LNG Terminal on Saturday said Vopak and Oiltanking would exit the joint venture as shareholders by May as a result of the new agreement.”
Comment: Where would the LNG come from? pl
Germany Advances Liquefied Natural Gas Plans to Cut Russian Gas Exposure | Newsmax.com
“Where would the LNG come from?”
In 3 or 4 years, after this terminal is built, they can buy it from the US once Biden is voted out of office and Trump’s energy independence policies allow the market to create a surplus of sale.
Where would the LNG come from? Qatar.
East Med too maybe.
From a prescient 2021 Doomberg article on EU energy problems:
“The Qatari Energy Minister, Saad Al-Kaabi stated, ‘we have huge demand from all our customers and unfortunately, we can’t cater for everyone.’ Qatar prefers East Asian customers who pay a premium. The EU is no longer the top market.
From Three Days of the Condor:
Higgins: No. It’s simple economics. Today it’s oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. And maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?
Turner: Ask them.
Higgins: Not now — then! Ask ’em when they’re running out. Ask ’em when there’s no heat in their homes and they’re cold. Ask ’em when their engines stop. Ask ’em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won’t want us to ask ’em. They’ll just want us to get it for ’em!
There was a piece in Reuters recently about the Chinese stocking up on reserves of energy and agricultural commodities. They are way ahead of everyone else.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europe-prepares-high-gas-prices-last-into-2023-kemp-2022-03-03/
« But there are not sufficient sources of additional LNG to refill seasonal storages in Europe and Asia and North America before next winter in the event of a loss of Russia’s pipeline exports.«
Now would be a good time to return the levers of power back to Higgins and co.
The US is the prime producer and exporter of LNG.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48876
Indeed, the provocations hace produced the desired effect on that the whole Europe depends on the 50% more expensive LNG for coverage of energy demands.
Spain has deliquefying plants which will be used while Germany built their own.
That probably has been the prize for Spain risking everything and ruining the coming teourist season, which the Ambassador in Moscow was hoping just a week ago would bring again the Russian tourists…..
Meanwhile the war between Marocco and Western Sahara continues in paralel with that in Ukraine, with no notice in the mass media, which led to the closing of the Magreb-Europe pipeline, way before Putin entered the Ukraine, whith which the volume of gas to Spain and Europe was cut in a half, making the prices for the population unpayable, equating, added to the price of electricity, to a cut in wages in the order of a 10%….in the caese of the best salaries, of course…
Two assaults to the Spanish southern border have occurred these past days, but Sánchez did not send any troops nor offensive weapons to that border, while he is sending them to the border of Russia…Strange, isn´t it? It is obvious this government is not defending neither Spanish interests nor borders for that matter….
It is in the waiting of civil unrest related to all these shenaningans by the managerial class to make life impossible for the taxpayers on behalf of foreign countries that new national security laws which constraint civil liberties beyond they were through the pandemic were introduced with Christmassy and alevosy.
For now, the conditioned through two years people is very busy collecting humanitarian goods for the Ukrainians, which they did not collect during the past eight years for the other Ukrianians under shelling living in Donbass, and talking in the bars and malls how evil is Putin, but, waht will happen when the gnassing of teeth starts?
Will they awake to the harsh reality on that they have been working for their own executioners, against their own peers, and will hang those at the helms during the past years, or will they end fighting and killing each other, like the Ukrainian nationalists?
Any of the outcomes, I fear, will fit the US anyway…as it did some 75 years ago…
Some in the West live on the blood and corpses of millions of others, even inside the West, sooner or later increasing number of people in the world will realize…
Nena
“the Spanish southern border” What border is that?
I am meaning the Spanish most southern border, that is the cities of Ceuta and Melilla…
On the other hand, Spain has the same responsabilities towards the Western Sahara people as Russia has towards the people in Donbass, citizens of a Spanish protectorate still under Spanish protection while they do not achieve their right to self determination granted by the UN.
That Spain exerts a dejation pf these responsablities and willingly ignore the role of the US and Israel in this standoff is very telling on the grade of twisting ogf balls the leaders of European countries are experiencing…
It has no sense that the Spanish Ambassador to Russia was hoping just a week ago the coming back of the Russian tourists once the pandemic measures relaxed and that all of a sudden Spain takes the inititiative of willingly going to defend the Ukrainian border of a full nazi Banderist regime even surpassing initiatives by major European powers like Germany and Francem while leaving its own borders under menace of the same powrrs it is going to support in the Ukraine…
One would think of a puppet government like that in the Ukraine, wouldn´t one?
I am thinking of something slightly similar to this….Of course, Sánchez looks quite more relaxed than Ze…When he looked really sick like Ze was at the first moments of the pandemic…
https://vk.com/pepeasia?z=photo578617852_457240019%2Falbum578617852_00%2Frev
99 Luftballons….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY
Spain is not really connect to the rest of the EU market.
The pipe line between Spain and France only has a 10 BCM capacity so that’s around 5-10% of the import of Russian gas. IF enough gas is available on the spot market.
Where would the LNG come from?
Algeria through TOtal.
Where would Algeria get the extra LNG from?
Qatar and Turkey to be more trusted than Russia? No good deals, just bad ones and worse ones.
Right now most LNG coming into Europe is from the US. In the first quarter of 2021 we moved into first place ahead of Qatar and Russia. We have more capacity to ship and Europe has more capacity to receive, regasify and transship gas from these ports. There’s a lot of European capacity besides Germany’s planned facility at Brunsbuettel.
“The current large-scale LNG receiving countries in Europe are Belgium (one terminal), France (four terminals), Greece (one terminal), Italy (three terminals), Lithuania (one terminal), Malta (one terminal), the Netherlands (one terminal), Poland (one terminal), Portugal (one terminal), Spain (seven terminals – six operational), Turkey (four terminals) and the UK (three terminals). Collectively, their overall LNG capacity is 237 billion cubic metres (of gas) (bcm), which is sufficient to cover approximately 40% of Europe’s gas demand.”
There are also alternatives for piped gas from Russia. “2020 marked the completion of the TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) – the last section of the Southern Gas Corridor. The route allows gas from the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea to flow into Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and finally Italy. TAP runs from Greece to Italy via Albania and the Adriatic Sea. The influx of gas into these countries via the TAP pipeline has caused a decline in demand for LNG in Southeast Europe.”
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/lng-europe-2021-current-trends-european-lng-landscape-and-country-focus
You forget to mention one important issue, the price…
This LNG coems at a 50% increase with regard Russian gas, through the necessity of shipping it and then desliquefy it, which will be transferred ot the taxpayers…and industries…
One would say that this means the nailing in the coffin of European remaining industry, after the lockdowns…
TAP has a maximum discharge of ca. 20 BCM. In 2021 the EU bought ca 150-160 BCM from Russia and that was insufficient. There’s a long way to energy independence from Russia.
P.S.
I forgot to mention that the TAP is already running at max. 10 BCM per year so it’s only another 10 BCM which will become available when the increase in capacity is finished.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/TAP-Gas-Pipeline-Ready-To-Expand-Capacity-Ahead-Of-Schedule.html
“The Economy Ministry said the terminal would have an annual capacity of 8 billion cubic meters and would be realized as quickly as possible.”
Just to put it in perspective:
Total volume of Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe in 2020
Germany (all via pipeline) 56,3 billion cubic meters
(Europe total: 167,7 billion cubic meters via pipeline, 17,2 billion cubic meters delivered as Russian LNG)
https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/297612/umfrage/umfang-der-russischen-erdgaslieferungen-nach-europa/
You can “cut” German dependence on Russian gas imports with this, but you cannot get rid of it. And that’s even before considering where you would (or could, if at all) source the LNG, at what price it would be available and what higher prices would do for the competitiveness of the German industry.
I guess that is the kind of problems you run into as a country when you have a failed energy policy and a failed foreign policy at the same time.
rho
Biden killed the future for Europe. They will freeze.
Bhadrakumar reports that Russia has announced w.e.f Thursday, it has shut down the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline which is the trunk route transporting gas to the German market via Belarus.
Col. Lang,
The Cabal That Calls Itself “Joe Biden” is a yuuge fan of demand destruction, masquerading as a Green/Save the Planet! agenda. They’re doing a pretty good job inflicting this on the US, too. If they remain in control, next winter will be a real pip for us in the Northeast.
Our house uses a furnace burning heating oil. We are enrolled in a budget plan with our supplier/HVAC service company with monthly payments to build a credit against which we draw during the heating season to defray the purchases of heating oil. A week or so ago, they raised our budgeted payment by $100 a month, but of course that can change, and likely will, and only in one direction. Here in the Northeast, about 25% of our supply of heating oil this winter was purchased from Russia. I don’t think I have to spell out the consequences if that arrangement is cancelled, from either side of the transaction.
We have some fireplaces in our home, and I am already thinking about dramatically upgrading our wood storage capacity against the need to supplement our primary heating source. Also, as this house, designed by my father in 1957, has many picture windows (double-paned, but not the current state of the art in their efficiency), a glory of the home in how it integrates the outside seamlessly into our life here, so energy-saving curtains look to be part of the package going forward. All of these measures come at a cost in money, opportunity costs as to where that money must be deprioritized (we ain’t made of it…), and even physical consequences. I am almost 70, and with a somewhat compromised back, wiry, and not a big, hearty guy, 5’7″ and less than 150 pounds, but I will rise to the occasion, as there will be no alternatives. Such are the vicissitudes of destiny, so there is no appeal. That being said, I will not be looking forward to loading and then unloading multiple 1/5 to 1/4 cords of wood from my favored supplier, wheeling them to the wood ricks to be, loading those up, tarping up the whole array, and then lugging them a sling at a time to the fireplaces, mostly because the “Biden” Cabal likes to immiserate and torture us for their demonstrably failing loony ideological reasons.
They have lied to us throughout the Plandemic, provoked civil disorders, destroyed any and all attempts to control our borders, ruined honest hard-working small businesses, subverted the electoral process to disable any chance of a counterforce to their anarchical agenda, and now they are wagging the dog as a distraction to all the abominations already inflicted upon us, and the other psychotic, dictatorial plans they obviously want to inflict upon us next.
No allegiance rendered to, or trust granted to these monsters. Why should we believe anything they say now?
Pat, gov’t should never be allowed in business and economics. Their decisions are simply pandering to get reelected. The supply of LNG is available from Ohio through Pennsy, and yes, my beloved New York (S.W. shale deposits near Seneca). Your old enough to remember that greenish blue can of “Pennsoil” for your car or tractor. Appalachian shale and coal deposits remain abundant. In fact they fueled our nation’s industrialization after the War of Northern Aggression until electricity challenged carbon as a power source. The coal, shale, and gas are still there. We just need the political (alas) decision to extract them.
Natural Gas is a global market anyway, they will likely just be importing LNG from Russia. The trick is being able to have gas delivered as cheaply as possible, which is only done from nearby and by pipeline.
https://www.theice.com/products/910/UK-Natural-Gas-Futures/data?marketId=5253318&span=3
The market has spoken clearly as to what they think of these plans.
London Bob,
Yes the pricing is certainly global, however the physical asset still has to get delivered. Regulations are distorting prices almost as badly as this conflict is.
There should be three LNG plants in the planning stage now with a combined 30 BCM capacity.
https://www.naturalgasintel.com/germany-revives-lng-import-plans-to-cut-reliance-on-russian-natural-gas-in-marked-policy-shift/
“German utility Uniper SE had previously proposed a 10 billion cubic meters (Bcm) per year floating terminal near the German port of Wilhelmshaven, but canceled it last year, opting to build an ammonia terminal. The German government, according to local news media reports, has now asked Uniper to revisit its LNG terminal plans.”
“A second project, the 8 Bcm/year GLT terminal in Brunsbuttel, near Hamburg, was originally planned to be operational by the end of 2022. But the project stalled in late 2021, when one of the three partners, Dutch storage company Royal Vopak NV, pulled out of the project, leaving two partners, Dutch gas grid operator NV Nederlandse Gasunie and Germany’s Oiltanking GmbH.”
“The 12 Bcm/year HEH onshore LNG terminal proposed for Stade in Northern Germany is also ready to move forward with its plans. “
Hilarious. The most common comment I’ve read is that Germany has decided to ‘commit suicide by Russia’.