An FSRU and its equipment will be installed inside the port of Le Havre, encroaching on the current ro-ro terminal, according to our partner
The Conversation
.
An FSRU is a permanently moored vessel whose function is to receive liquefied natural gas (LNG) transhipped from LNG carriers, store it, bring it back to gaseous state and inject it into the transport network. of natural gas.
This analysis was conducted by
Nicolas Guillet
, HDR lecturer in public law at the University of Le Havre Normandy and director of the Center for Research on Changes in Law and Social Changes (CERMUD).
Thursday January 19, 2023, the administrative court of Rouen rejected the summary proceedings filed in particular by the Ecology association for Le Havre, as well as EELV Normandie and the deputy Julien Bayou, against two administrative authorizations which had been granted within the framework of the project of floating LNG terminal (TMF) or Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) in the port of Le Havre in Seine-Maritime.
As a reminder, this project was announced by the French government following the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army in February 2022. An FSRU is a permanently moored ship, whose function is to receive natural gas liquefied gas (LNG) transhipped from LNG carriers, storing it, bringing it back to gaseous state and injecting it into the natural gas transport network.
In charge of the project, the consortium made up of TotalEnergies and GRT Gaz is aiming for commissioning before the winter of 2023. TotalEnergies is providing an FSRU, the
Cape Ann
, with a regasification capacity of 45 TWh per year – 10% of French consumption – which will be operated by its subsidiary TotalEnergies LNG services France (TELSF).
The terminal is connected to quayside facilities, which are connected to the network thanks to the construction by GRT Gaz of a 3.4 km pipeline.
In connection with the public establishment of the large river-sea port on the Seine axis (Haropa), it was decided to install the FSRU and its equipment inside the port of Le Havre itself, encroaching on the current ro-ro terminal .
This unprecedented industrial project in France, made official by the Prime Minister on June 23, 2022, was offered an ad hoc legal regime by the law of August 16, 2022 on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power.
A lack of a priori environmental study
Choosing a floating LNG terminal rather than land (such as those in Dunkirk, Fos, Verdon or Montoir-de-Bretagne) means complying with different procedures and regulations.
In the case of an onshore terminal, an environmental assessment involving a public inquiry is required, like the project planned for 2007 on the Antifer site in the commune of Saint-Jouin Bruneval.
Conversely, in the design of the TMF carried out by the State, the land installations (mooring of the FSRU, gas transfer system, various safety equipment) are subject to compliance with the rules of the environmental codes and the construction, while the vessel falls under maritime legislation.
The dissociation of land and sea aspects in the project may thus have led the prefect of Normandy to consider, in a decision of August 3, 2022, that the application for authorization to build the gas pipeline escaped an environmental assessment.
On the contrary, the opponents of the project believe that it forms a whole, constitutes an installation classified for the protection of the environment (ICPE) and must be subject to environmental assessment.
In particular, they allege that the ship will be moored for five years (according to the law), that it will in fact no longer be used normally for navigation and will therefore become a fixed installation dedicated to an industrial activity.
Accelerated administrative authorizations
The two information meetings (including one public) held after the start of the project, to which was added public participation by electronic means concerning the sole construction and operation of the pipeline, did not allow discussion of these choice, nor those relating to the place of installation of the FSRU or the technique used.
Not subjecting the project to an environmental assessment obviously speeds up the delivery of the various administrative authorizations to build land facilities.
In just a few months, from July to December, the exemption from environmental assessment, the building permit for the dockside facilities and the authorization to build the gas pipeline were granted, while an ICPE procedure would have lasted between 10 and 12 months.
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Floating LNG terminal in Le Havre: EELV's appeals before the Rouen administrative court (France 3 Normandy, January 2023)
Series derogations
Still in the direction of speeding up the file, in order to limit the challenges to the project that have already appeared (in particular by way of petition), a decree of September 29, 2022 created a specific litigation regime applicable to decisions relating to the FSRU, in particular the reduction from two to one month of the time limit for appealing against administrative decisions.
In addition to these derogations, there are the unusual operating conditions of this gas infrastructure.
To ensure the financial profitability of the project, the TELSF company requested that 50% of the FSRU's capacities be reserved for TotalEnergies Gas & Power Ltd, a company governed by foreign law and another subsidiary of TotalEnergies.
Although this is a major derogation from the principle of free access for suppliers to gas infrastructures, the Energy Regulatory Commission gave a favorable opinion on November 24, 2022, an opinion which we imagine could be monitored by the Minister responsible for energy.
Finally, while FSRUs are in full development in the world, the project comes up against a set of legal considerations related to the preservation of the environment.
Environmental issues
Firstly, FSRUs escape the application of Annex VI of the 1973 International Convention for the Prevention and Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) when they are stationary, i.e. in their storage and regasification activity.
As for the local regulations for the transport and handling of dangerous goods in the large maritime port of Le Havre of March 30, 2018, it does not (yet?) include provisions to regulate the case of a ship at quay carrying out an industrial activity.
Furthermore, the so-called closed loop regasification technique that the
Cape Ann
will use (it uses part of the gas transferred to it from LNG carriers) seems the worst of all possible technical solutions, as shown in an article recent.
The dependence on fossil fuels
Then, the project has the major drawback of accentuating the dependence on a fossil fuel emitting methane while the climate emergency is reiterated by the IPCC and the Paris Agreement of 2015 (legally binding) has set the objective of limiting global warming to a level below 2°C.
However, massively importing LNG, often from hydraulic fracturing (extraction technique banned in France since 2011 but widely used in the United States of America in particular) and transported by ship over long distances, will not allow France reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
In this respect, even if the traceability of shale gas seems difficult, it is possible that environmental protection obligations will be imposed on the operator of the FSRU, such as Article 3 of Directive 2009/73/EC of July 13, 2009 gives Member States the opportunity to do so, as the Collectif Climat du Havre had recommended.
The lack of evidence of a “serious threat”
Faced with the climate challenge of an industrial project based on fossil energy, the Constitutional Council made no mistake when it ruled, in its decision of August 12, 2022, that "unless it disregards Article 1 of the Environmental Charter" according to which "everyone has the right to live in a balanced environment respectful of health", the contested provisions of the law of August 16 "could only apply in the case of a serious threat to the security of gas supply".
OUR “ENERGY CRISIS” FILE
However, so far, while gas consumption now seems to be falling steadily in France, the government has not demonstrated this “serious threat”.
These different points of the TMF project, heavy with legal issues, will be discussed during a symposium at the University of Le Havre on April 6 and 7.
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