After the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in order to fill the gap in Russian natural gas, Germany and other European countries have been "looking for gas" everywhere. On September 15, the construction of Germany's first LNG receiving unit was completed. The first LNG imports through this unit will have to wait until next year.
This is Wilhelmshafen, Lower Saxony, in northwestern Germany. Germany's first LNG receiving plant was completed here on the 15th. German energy giant Uniper, the German energy giant in charge of construction, said the first LNG ship would call at the port in mid-December. Germany is expected to import LNG through the facility from January 2023.
Christian Janzen, project leader of the LNG receiving plant in Wilhelmshaven, Germany: This plant is an important cornerstone of Germany's energy security, and the LNG imported through this plant can cover 8% of Germany's natural gas consumption.
In April 2021, Germany's Uniper suspended the construction of a liquefied natural gas receiving unit in Wilhelmshaven due to insufficient expected demand. But after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in February 2022, Germany faced an energy crisis, and Uniper restarted the construction plan for Wilhelmshaven in May this year.
At present, the storage capacity of Germany's natural gas storage facilities has reached 100%, but even 100% of the gas storage is only enough for about 10 weeks of use, so Germany still urgently needs LNG installations to ensure imports.
In addition to the just-completed receiving unit, Germany also has 5 LNG receiving units under construction, all of which need to wait until the end of 2023, when the 6 LNG receiving units are completed, which can cover one-third of Germany's natural gas consumption, which is about equivalent to the gas supply from Russia to Germany before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
After the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, European countries such as Germany sought to diversify their natural gas sources. Among them, the volume of natural gas exported by the United States to Europe soared. U.S. LNG exports to Europe surged nearly 150 percent in the first 10 months of 2022, according to ship tracking agency Keppler. However, the sale of natural gas by the United States at a high price has caused dissatisfaction in Germany, and German officials have accused the United States of supplying natural gas to Germany at excessive prices and taking advantage of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to make war money.
According to the German Berliner Zeitung, buying US LNG is extremely expensive for European end customers, while also bringing incredible profits to suppliers. According to data disclosed by Business Insider in October this year, at that time, US companies could earn more than 100 million US dollars (about 710 million yuan) in profits per LNG carrier bound for Europe.
Source: CCTV Finance