KIEL: A floating terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived on Friday at its destination in the northern German industrial port of Brunsbüttel.
LNG is a key part of Germany's energy strategy to move away from Russian fossil fuels in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Originally an LNG tanker built in 2018, the 294-metre-long and 46-metre-wide Höegh Gannet platform is Germany's third floating LNG terminal. It will be installed at the mouth of the Elbe River into the North Sea, 85 kilometres northwest of Hamburg.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck and the boss of German energy company RWE, Markus Krebber, were due to attend a ceremony marking the arrival on Friday.
The terminal will initially receive liquefied gas in Brunsbüttel and convert it back to its gaseous state to transport it to the pipelines before a stationary terminal is ready for operation in the future.
There, 3.5 billion cubic metres of gas are to be fed into the grid with the help of the special ship in the current year, rising to 7.5 billion cubic metres once a long connecting pipeline has been completed. The stationary terminal is due for completion in 2026.
Another terminal ship is already moored further along the coastline in Wilhelmshaven and a third in German's Baltic Sea port of Lubmin, near the border with Poland. Work is just beginning on a fourth LNG terminal in Stade, also on the Elbe River. - dpa
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