German Chancellor Olaf Scholz witnessed the inauguration and commissioning of the country’s first natural gas regasification plant in Wilhelmshaven on Saturday.
The plant was erected in a record time of less than ten months, which shows that «our country is capable of new beginnings and of great speed,» Scholz emphasized.
Scholz was accompanied by the Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck, and the Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, as well as the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, and 400 other guests on board the ship ‘Helgoland’, usually used for tourist excursions.
The floating terminal, located off the coast of Lower Saxony, seeks to make up for Germany’s natural gas deficit by importing from abroad in the wake of the crisis with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
The centerpiece of the plant is an almost 300-meter-long ship, the ‘Höegh Esperanza’, which will supply the regasified natural gas to the German grid.
Four other regasification plants should be operational by the end of the year in Brunsbuettel (Schleswig-Holstein), Stade (Lower Saxony) and Lubmin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), plus a fourth one also located in Wilhelmshaven. Scholz approved the construction of the plants on February 27, three days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
