In order to prepare Germany for the winter in view of the impending gas shortage, the government is relying, among other things, on the import of liquefied natural gas. A large amount of biocide is to be discharged into the North Sea for the operation of the LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven – too much, warns the German Environmental Aid.
The German Environmental Aid has called for an immediate environmental impact assessment for the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven. “In Wilhelmshaven and at the other LNG sites there is a threat of a creeping chemical accident,” said the federal director of environmental aid, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, to the political journal “Rundblick”.
According to the application documents, the state-owned gas company Uniper wants to “discharge ten times as much biocide into the North Sea with its LNG terminal ship as the Australian authorities previously considered acceptable at a comparable location,” he warned. According to the Australian authorities, the ship does not correspond to the state of the art. “The federal government is in danger of falling behind international environmental standards,” warned Environmental Aid climate protection director Constantin Zerger. The German Environmental Aid called for an amendment to the LNG Acceleration Act and the Water Management Act.
The Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal Defense and Nature Conservation had previously announced that the state-owned gas company Uniper had applied for the discharge of up to 178 million cubic meters of biocide-treated lake water annually. Biocides are chemicals used to control pests. They are intended to prevent the terminals from becoming overgrown by mussels and crustaceans.
According to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Energy, the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven is scheduled to start operations this winter – from December 23, liquefied natural gas is to be fed into the German gas network after it has been converted into a gaseous state. According to earlier information, the goal is to handle up to 7.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year – that’s about 8.5 percent of Germany’s gas requirements. In addition to the terminal in Wilhelmshaven, the terminal in Brunsbüttel is also to be operated by RWE and Uniper. In order to fully utilize the terminals, EnBW and the EnBW subsidiary VNG will also be on board from the turn of the year 2023/2024 until the end of March 2024.
