Germany begins construction of natural gas terminal.
Germany today confirmed the start of work on the construction of its first liquefied natural gas terminal in the port city of Wilhelmshaven in the Lower Saxony region.
The construction is part of the country’s efforts to become independent of Russian gas after the invasion of Ukraine, but also the sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union.
Germany is trying to speed up the construction of terminals to import gas from various countries, including the United States.
“We have a good opportunity to do what is otherwise impossible in Germany – to build a terminal in about 10 months and connect it to German gas,” German Deputy Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said today as he oversaw the start of work.
Germany has been under pressure from Ukraine and other European countries to take steps to cut off Russian energy supplies since the start of the Russian occupation of Ukraine on February 24.
Habeck added that Europe’s largest economy has reduced its share of Russian energy imports from 35 to 12 percent for oil, from 50 to 8 percent for coal and from 55 to 35 percent for natural gas.
Also, if Russia cuts off gas supplies, Germany would lose 220 billion euros. For this reason the authorities of this country have decided to take more intensive and concrete steps to avoid catastrophic consequences.