Finance ministry approves €3 billion for floating LNG terminals

The German finance ministry has approved the spending of up to three billion euros from the budget to finance floating terminals for liquified natural gas (LNG) in German ports. With the signing of the first charter contracts scheduled for last and this week (20 April), the release of the funds was initiated by the ministry even before consulting parliament’s budget committee, Handelsblatt reports. Private companies will charter the terminals on behalf of the government, and a spokesperson for RWE, which is involved in the contracting, said that some of the ships could be ready for use as early as next winter. The ports of Wilhelmshaven, Brunsbüttel and Rostock are under consideration.

The war against Ukraine has put efforts to diversify Germany’s gas supply away from Russian deliveries at the top of the government agenda. As part of these efforts, chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany will build two domestic liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals and the government is leasing floating terminals as well. Germany has a well-developed natural gas pipeline grid and is connected to terminals in neighbouring countries, but does not currently have its own port to receive LNG directly.