Environmental Action Germany (DUH) has taken legal action against the first floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Germany, which began operations in Wilhelmshaven in mid-December.

The association lodged an objection with the State Trade Supervisory Office in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, against the operating license issued on 16 December, as announced by DUH on Wednesday. In the letter, the DUH demands that the operating license, which was granted for 20 years, be halved to ten years until the end of 2032. It also objects to the annual discharge of large quantities of environmentally harmful chlorine, which is used for cleaning on the terminal ship "Höegh Esperanza".

The terminal ship is operated by the energy company Uniper, which was nationalized in the wake of the restrictions on Russian gas supplies and is now owned by the federal government. "There must be no environmental debate when it comes to the approval of plants for liquefied natural gas," explained DUH Federal Managing Director Sascha Müller-Krämer. Open-ended operating permits for fossil fuels endangered the climate targets. The chlorine purification process is outdated and could be replaced by environmentally friendly processes. Other LNG terminal ships are cleaned entirely without chlorine.

(Report by Holger Hansen; edited by Hans Seidenstücker; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)).