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Germany completes five-year engineering feat in months | Jobs Vox

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Wilhelmshaven, Germany—In March, the German government asked energy companies to weigh in on a seemingly impossible engineering task. Could a new liquefied natural gas import terminal, which normally takes at least five years to build, be built in the port city by the end of the year?

Asked to build part of the pipeline at the company’s headquarters, technical director Thomas Huvner posed that question to his team. “If not, it is not,” he told them. “If so, we will have to commit with all possible consequences for our company.”

After three days of deliberations, the company concluded that if all went well, the project could be completed by Christmas. Since then, it has faced potentially toxic soil and environmental regulations protecting frogs and bats. When the workers encountered high groundwater, they had to drain the pits, then refill them.

Another company building a jetty for a floating terminal needed to scan the seabed for unexploded World War II-era munitions and construction sites across Europe for supplies.

“This project is really a race against time,” said pipeline project manager Franz-Josef Kissing. “It’s a battle.”

Cut off from most Russian natural gas, much of Europe is racing to harness alternative energy sources and build the infrastructure needed for them. If the continent fails to consolidate its energy grids, governments may have to resort to rationing fuel this winter, potentially causing more pain for shuttered factories and manufacturers. The next winter could be even more difficult if gas storage facilities are not replenished. The European Union has estimated that ending dependence on Russian fossil fuels would add at least 300 billion euros, or about $315 billion, to infrastructure costs by 2030.

Since Russia stopped most natural gas exports to Europe this fall, gas flows from Russia to Germany have dropped from 55% of imports last year to zero. Three German liquefied natural gas terminals to be completed this year could cover at least 15% of the country’s gas demand. Berlin plans to install several more terminals over the next year and is working on more permanent installations. It has budgeted more than €6.5 billion for such terminals in 2022.

step by step

Dependence on Russian natural gas has been partially offset by other producers and increased imports of liquefied natural gas.

EU natural gas imports by source, monthly

LNG

september:

9.9 billion

cube

meters away

LNG

september:

9.9 billion

cube

meters away

LNG

september:

9.9 billion

cube

meters away

LNG

september:

9.9 billion

cube

meters away

LNG

september:

9.9 billion

cube

meters away

Dozens of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, facilities are set to be built in the European Union in the coming years, which would allow Europe to buy more gas from countries such as Qatar and the US.

Within days of taking on the job of building the 19-mile pipeline between the new Wilhelmshaven terminal and the natural gas grid, Mr Kissing’s employer, pipeline manufacturer Open Grid Europe GmbH, held a meeting with experts in everything from route planning and nature conservation. Team formed for archeology and law.

Cooling natural gas to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit turns it into a liquid that can be shipped in ocean-going tankers to terminals, where it can be converted back into a gas. A floating LNG terminal is a gas facility on a large specialized tanker that receives liquefied gas from another tanker and returns it to a gaseous state.

Select floating liquefied-natural-gas unit development in the EU from September 2021 to October 2022

capacity in billion cubic meters

Per year

capacity in billion cubic meters

Per year

Capacity in billions of cubic meters per year

Capacity in billions of cubic meters per year

Capacity in billions of cubic meters per year

The jetty which will house the floating Wilhelmshaven terminal is a particularly complex project as it has to withstand the pressure of two large, gas-filled ships. For Niedersachsen Ports GmbH & Co. KG, which is building the jetty, the first challenge was finding the material—fast. It would take months to get them from a factory. The company’s Wilhelmshaven branch manager, Matthias Lüdike, said the company had to scour Europe for construction materials, including steel piles, which would be transported by sea.

Niedersachsen Ports called on suppliers in France, the Netherlands, Finland and the Baltics. It found 165-foot steel piles at an inactive construction site in Lithuania. The original plan had smaller plans, so the company adjusted the layout.

To save time, most of the 3,000 cubic meters of concrete needed for the project were brought in as giant, semiprecious blocks, which were assembled like Lego pieces.

“We needed stuff that’s ready,” Mr. Ludike said. “So we changed the whole planning process as we went along, based on what was available.”

Jetties under construction for the floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven. Matthias Lüdike, right, Wilhelmshaven branch manager for Niedersachsen Ports GmbH.

Niedersachsen Ports deactivated other projects to concentrate on work. Staff worked through the Easter weekend to prepare the necessary documentation. “Nobody pays attention to the overtime because we all said, this is the job to do,” Mr. Ludicke said.

The German bureaucracy also made adjustments. Parliament passed the LNG Acceleration Act, speeding up the processes for reviewing, approving and awarding contracts for LNG projects.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in March about speeding up the construction of LNG terminals, “If there is any chance in this terrible situation, it is that we get rid of all this sleeplessness and in some cases the panic that exists in Germany. “

Other large construction projects in Germany have progressed slowly. In 2020, Berlin opened its new airport nine years late. Stuttgart’s new railway station, which has been under construction since 2010, is now due to open in 2025 after years of delay and huge cost overruns.

The state of Niedersachsen issued some of the necessary permits for the LNG terminal on Sunday, May 1, International Workers’ Day. “This is not a day you would expect this to happen,” said state economy minister Olaf Lies. “We needed a new German pace.”

Similar projects elsewhere in Europe have faced opposition from activists who are against building new fossil-fuel infrastructure, and who say such projects harm the local environment.

In Italy, a floating LNG terminal in the Tuscan port of Piombino is due to go into service next May. But several local groups have protested, claiming the project poses a risk to residents and the environment. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that the new vessel’s anchorage at Piombino is important for Italy’s economy and national security.

How a Floating LNG Terminal Works

liquefied natural

gas is delivered

by a tanker

gas is pumped

floating storage and

regasification unit

liquefied gas is converted

in gaseous state

floating storage and

regasification unit

discharge arms allow

onshore gas

discharge arms allow

onshore gas

gas flow is measured

by a metering station

gas flow is measured

by a metering station

gas flows

grid for user

liquefied

Natural

is gas

distributed by

a tanker

gas is pumped

on floating

storage and

regasification unit

liquefied

is gas

converted

In

gaseous

State

floating storage and

regasification unit

floating storage and

regasification unit

discharge

arms permit

to pass gas

On the coast

the flow of gas is

measured

by measurement

station

gas flows

Through

to the grid

end user

floating storage and

regasification unit

floating storage and

regasification unit

Liquefied natural gas is supplied

by a tanker

Gas is pumped onto floating storage

and regasification unit

converted into liquefied gas

a gaseous state

Discharge arms allow gas to flow onshore

Gas flow is measured by metering

station

Gas flows through the grid to the end user

In Germany, the new pipeline will cross the path of the annual migration of frogs. To prevent the creatures from falling into the ditch in which the pipe will be buried, Mr. Kissing’s team erects a fence of frogs. In some cases, experts had to build new caves for the bats.

When he started digging he found another problem. The soil in this region has a high concentration of sulfuric acid, which can be toxic under certain circumstances if exposed to oxygen for too long.

Also the ground water level was high. The trenches had to be dried to weld the pipes together.

To solve both problems, Mr. Kissing’s 800 employees worked in 400-foot increments, draining the trenches with pumps, then back-filling them.

“You can run as far as you want, but mud is mud,” Mr. Kissing said while walking around the site on a recent rainy morning.

Pipeline project manager Franz-Joseph Kissing, left. Mr Kissing, right, inspects the link being built between the pipeline and Germany’s gas grid.

The ground water also had iron above the standard. So the company had to build special de-ironing facilities to filter the water before dumping it back into nearby farms.

Connecting the new pipeline to the German gas grid posed another problem. It needs to be connected to an existing pipeline carrying gas from Norway, which has become essential for Germany and cannot be closed for linkup work in the coming days. A bypass device had to be built in to keep the gas flowing.

Before starting the construction of the jetty, the Niedersachsen Ports first needed to search for unexploded ordnance from World War II. Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s only deep-water port, was heavily bombarded during the war. The company explored the seabed and recovered some small arms.

In September, four months before the deadline, a problem cropped up that made it impossible to finish on time. The Wilhelmshaven sea lock – a structure in the harbor used to raise and lower boats passing between parts of the water – had a mechanical failure, prompting the port to close the passage. The piles required for the jetty, which were being welded together at the port, got stuck.

Mr. Ludike met with officials from the Waterways Authority and the German Navy and worked out a solution. The port will allow ships carrying shale to pass through the lock with only one gate open, but only when the tides are such that the water level is equal.

“It was a very fine balancing act, a lot of coordination,” Mr. Ludicke said. “If we had not managed to do that, we would not have been able to launch the terminal this year.”

Open Grid Europe GmbH workers, left, at the pipeline construction site. De-ironing facilities, right, were built to filter groundwater for disposal on surrounding farms.

In September, explosions damaged the Nord Stream pipelines running under the Baltic Sea a few hundred miles east of Wilhelmshaven, in what European authorities have called an act of sabotage. This raised concerns about the vulnerability of energy infrastructure across Europe. Local police sent officers along the route of the new pipeline, and boats patrolled around the wharf.

Mr. Ludike is hoping for good weather as his team races toward the finish line. Bad weather can force delays, and strong winds regularly halt work. There is still work to be done and tests to be done before the floating terminal, the 965-foot Hoeg Esperanza, can dock in Wilhelmshaven and begin flowing gas in the coming days.

Utility Uniper SE,

The German state which recently agreed to nationalize and which will operate the terminal said that if all goes according to plan, the first tanker carrying LNG will arrive early next year.

“If we have extreme weather, it could cause problems and delay things,” Mr Ludicke said. “we are very close.”

write to Georgi Kantchev at [email protected]

Copyright © 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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