Christmas comes early to Germany this weekend with fresh, novel replacements for Russian energy from east and west: crude oil from Poland and the first ship carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a new North Sea terminal.
On Saturday morning, after just 10 months’ planning and construction, Germany will open its first floating LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven, west of Hamburg.
The Hoegh Esperanza floating LNG vessel arrived on Thursday in the port carrying 165,000 cubic metres of fuel from Spain – enough to supply 80,000 households for a year, according to importer Uniper.
“After 10 months of intensive work, it is a great moment to see the Hoegh Esperanza dock here,” said Holger Kreetz, Uniper chief operating officer.
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“Only the good, determined co-operation between the companies, authorities and politicians has made this pace possible – which we should use as a blueprint for the transition to renewable energy.”
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With steady deliveries, the new terminal will convert back around 5 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, meeting 6 per cent of Germany’s gas demand.
Uniper added in a statement that this would “replace around 11 per cent of Germany’s gas imports from Russia”.
A year ago Germany was drawing 55 per cent of its gas from Russia, supplies which have ended entirely because of war tensions, throttled deliveries and the unexplained explosion in the undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline network.
The first LNG terminal, with five more to follow, is part of Germany’s high-speed pivot away from Russia. Crude oil deliveries from Poland are another part of the puzzle.
On Thursday Warsaw agreed to supply enough crude to allow a key German refinery operate at 70 per cent capacity from January. This in turn allows German wean itself off Russian oil imports by the end of the year, in line with EU sanctions.
The deal with Poland has saved the Schwedt refinery, northeast of Berlin, which supplies almost all petrol and diesel in the Berlin-Brandenburg area – including the airport.
In September, Germany placed the refinery under state trusteeship – though Russia’s Rosneft still holds a 53.4 per cent stake, with other shareholders Shell and Eni.
Until now the Schwedt refinery, built by East Germany in 1964, has been supplied by the Russian “Druschba” (friendship pipeline).
The new arrangement will see deliveries of 100,000 tonnes of crude through the Polish Baltic port of Gdynia, near Gdansk, and on to the port of Rostock in Germany. There, a 250km pipeline exists to carry the crude to Schwedt. As well as supplying the Berlin-Brandenburg region, the refinery will also process petrol and diesel for stations in western Poland.
“The security of supply can be guaranteed by deliveries via Rostock, Poland and Kazakhstan,” said Michael Kellner, state secretary in Germany’s energy ministry.
Brandenburg economics minister Jörg Steinbach described the deal crucial not just for regional oil supply but for securing the refinery, a major employer in the state’s economically weak northeast.
As part of a major policy shift, Germany’s federal government is investing €700 million in new infrastructure in Schwedt that will allow the refinery produce green hydrogen from 2025.
