Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal: Application documents submitted for planning approval procedure for Wilhelmshaven pipeline link

On 29 April 2022, transmission system operator OGE submitted its application documents for planning approval for the Wilhelmshaven Pipeline Link (WAL). The competent authority is the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG). The public participation procedure is scheduled to start on 3 May. The application documents will be available in electronic form on the LBEG website and the Lower Saxony EIA Portal for public inspection from 5 May to 7 June 2022. Moreover, the planning documents will be made available as an additional source of information for inspection at the municipalities concerned. This will give citizens affected by and/or interested in the project the opportunity to become involved in the planning approval procedure. The planning approval procedure is scheduled to be completed at the end of August 2022. OGE will provide further updates on the planning approval progress.

Construction of the new pipeline is aimed at quickly diversifying the sources of gas supply and will require close cooperation between politicians, authorities, society including the affected landowners and tenants as well as OGE. OGE plans to complete the WAL pipeline to the Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal by the end of 2022. It will be approximately 26 km long, one metre in diameter (DN 1000) and will provide an initial annual capacity of 10 billion cubic metres. The end point will be the NETRA transmission pipeline near the Etzel gas storage facility. The NETRA tie-in will allow the gas to be shipped from the North Sea coast to the south and east of the country to replace Russian gas in the future. The pipeline will be designed to allow conversion to pure hydrogen at a future point in time.