The LNG terminals are twice as expensive as planned in the original draft budget.
(Photo: REUTERS)
Berlin According to a media report, the purchase and maintenance of floating liquefied natural gas terminals will cost Germany at least three and a half billion euros more than planned. A total of around 6.56 billion euros in budget funds are currently planned, the “Spiegel” reported on Sunday, citing the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In the budget for 2022, 2.94 billion euros were estimated. The Budget Committee of the Bundestag has just approved additional money for the terminals.
The ministry is quoted as saying that in “extensive coordination with numerous stakeholders” “further costs have now been determined and initially forecast costs have been specified. This affects, for example, operating costs and costs for additional infrastructure measures on land. According to documents from the Budget Committee, two of the terminals had to be chartered for 15 years instead of the ten years originally planned. Germany has therefore negotiated the option of shortening the period to ten years, but must decide on this next year.
“The traffic light coalition has made itself open to blackmail with the no alternative use of LNG gas and now has to pay billions more,” left-wing budget politician Victor Perli told the magazine. The Green budget politician Sven Christian Kindler said: “In the short term, the gas supply must be secured, but we must be careful not to create any fossil overcapacities for the future. We need more clarity in the budget committee about the costs and risks of the LNG projects.”
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck had praised the construction of the first German terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) within 200 days as a central building block for energy security. “Germany can be fast and advance infrastructure projects with great determination if the federal and state governments and those involved in the project pull together,” he said on Tuesday when the floating terminal in Wilhelmshaven was completed. A second terminal is also scheduled to go into operation in Brunsbüttel at the turn of the year. According to the plans, another private terminal will also be ready in Lubmin.
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Since two more terminals are due to be completed in the following winter of 2023/2024, the five terminals could then cover around a third of German gas requirements based on consumption in 2021. However, about 50 percent had come from Russia via pipeline in recent years. The gap is to be filled primarily through gas savings of around 20 percent.
More: That’s how fast the construction of the LNG terminals in Germany is progressing