The German government is said to be planning a law to speed up the construction of import terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG), as Berlin seeks to find alternative sources of energy to lessen its dependence on Russian imports.
The draft law to accelerate LNG projects in northern Germany was created by the Economics, Environment and Justice Ministries and has been submitted for departmental approval, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) learned from circles in the Ministry of Economics and Technology.
Plans had already been established to build LNG terminals in Stade, Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel, among other locations. Officials now seek to accelerate those projects given Moscow's continued bombardment of Ukraine.
A paper seen by dpa says the LNG Acceleration Act aims to "go through all approval and licensing procedures as well as the awarding of public contracts and concessions considerably faster than is possible under the current legal situation, and so to achieve speedy approvals and integration of LNG into the German market."
Specifically, the law would allow licensing authorities to temporarily suspend certain requirements such as environmental impact assessments, under some conditions.
The law is to apply to floating and land-based LNG import terminals, and would enable these to be approved and put into operation more quickly.
Creating floating or land-based terminals will also involve infrastructural adjustments including linking them to the natural gas pipeline network. Port facilities will also need to be adapted in some cases.
