Greenpeace Protests Arrival of Vessel in Germany with U.S. LNG

 

The international environmental group Greenpeace renewed its campaign against the use of LNG targeting the arrival of a new large gas carrier coming from the U.S. to offload at one of Germany’s floating LNG import terminals. They renewed their calls for the end of the gas extraction method known as fracking and for Germany and other European countries to end their investments in LNG imports.

A group of approximately 22 Greenpeace protestors from Germany, Belgium, and Poland took to a flotilla of kayaks, small boats, and other floats to call attention to their cause as the Celsius Gandhinagar (92,385 dwt) was scheduled to arrive from the U.S. on November 30. The vessel, which entered service this year for Denmark’s Celsius Shipping, had loaded a cargo of LNG at the U.S.’s Calcasieu Pass terminal operated by Venture Global.

The protestors took to the water before daylight on Saturday. Among their efforts they got alongside the floating terminal at Brunsbüttel, Germany provided by Hoegh and hung a more than 300-foot-long banner on the hull of the vessel reading “Gas destroyed – Stop Fossil Gas.” Other small boats dotted the harbor displaying their protest signs.

 

Greenpeace hung a banner on the hull of the Hoegh LNG vessel operating as the terminal in Brunsbüttle, Germany (Greenpeace)

 

They were not able to stop the arrival of the gas shipment. The vessel unloaded and departed on December 2 for its return trip to the United States. However, Greenpeace highlights that around 84 percent of the LNG now being imported into Germany is coming from the United States after it ended its ties to Russia.

“In order to replace Russian gas with other sources, the expansion of infrastructure for LNG imports has been booming across Europe since 2022,” said Mira Jäger, energy expert at Greenpeace. “But although many of the planned construction projects have not yet been implemented, the existing facilities in Europe are already only operating at about half capacity.”

Greenpeace cited data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) that predicts that up to three-quarters of European LNG terminals could remain unused by 2030. The group is calling on European countries to “push ahead with the phase-out of fossil fuels instead of increasing demand for dirty fracking gas.”

Germany established three floating LNG import terminals after the start of the war in Ukraine with Brunsbüttel being one of the locals where Germany plans to establish a permanent import terminal that is under construction for LNG. The group says Germany's investment in LNG terminals “does not correspond” to the plans for climate neutrality by 2045 and is instead “driving Germany into new fossil dependencies.” They cite data that says the U.S. remains responsible for a third of new oil and gas extraction planned by 2050.

The U.S. arm of Greenpeace also issued a statement calling on the Biden administration to reject six pending LNG export projects planned for the U.S. Gulf Coast including Calcasieu Pass 2. They expect Donald Trump once he is sworn in to quickly move to increase U.S. LNG exports and they highlight that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a deal with Trump to expand U.S. LNG exports in order to head off potential tariffs on EU goods exported to the U.S. 

The protest was also timed to the World LNG Summit starting on December 9 in Berlin. Greenpeace reports it is calling for another demonstration on December 10 tied to the conference.