LNG: TotalEnergies will lead the floating LNG terminal project in Le Havre
Tanker transporting liquefied natural gas to the Montoir-de-Bretagne LNG terminal in western France (Illustrative image).
© LOIC VENANCE/AFP
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While Russia is reducing its gas supplies to European countries, France wants to take the road to independence with a floating LNG carrier project in Le Havre.
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It is christened
Cape Ann
.
This 300-meter building is one of the two FSRU (floating regasification unit) vessels of the TotalEnergies group, which the public authorities have chosen as a new import point for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Le Havre.
This project is part of the "energy sovereignty" component of the package of emergency measures on purchasing power adopted yesterday by the Senate, while the energy showdown between Moscow and the West since the start of the conflict in Ukraine has led to a crisis in the supply of natural gas throughout Europe.
France, which is supplied today by four LNG import port terminals (two at Fos-sur-Mer, one at Montoir de Bretagne, and one at Dunkirk), wanted to secure this supply with a new terminal.
Shale gas
The TotalEnergie vessel will be able to inject "
about 10% of French annual consumption
" indicates the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, from LNG carriers which will come to supply it with gas coming in particular from Norway, Qatar, Algeria or even United States, major producers of shale gas, a gas recovered by hydraulic fracturing.
However, the technique of hydraulic fracturing, which pollutes water, and the exploitation of shale gas have been prohibited in France since laws of 2011 and 2017. "
We are already importing shale gas
", defended the Minister of the Energy Transition during the examination of the bill by the Senate on Friday July 29, because “
hydraulic fracturing is used today in most onshore deposits in the world, including in Russia for that matter
”.
But LNG, she recalled, is “
a liquid device that brings together different liquids carried by different trucks or different
pipes
, which are collected abroad and end up in a ship
”.
We cannot distinguish the different types of gas "
molecule by molecule
", insisted the minister.
“
I think it interests a lot of people that there is absolutely no transparency on the type of gas that arrives in the boat
”, retorted an environmental senator.
"
War Economy
"
For Didier Julienne, expert in natural resources, this situation of energy crisis from which France wants to extract itself makes it take incoherent decisions both at the environmental level and at the level of the country's energy independence.
“
It's a real French contradiction that has been undermined by the war.
War
economics
refutes all theories that were based on ideology
or
politics
and
replaces them with urgency alone
,” he observes.
The work of the LNG terminal will consist in restoring the gaseous state to the liquid material by heating it.
The installation will make it possible to inject into the network up to 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas, i.e. 60% of France's imports from Russia in 2021.
Almost half of the natural gas supply is provided by LNG carriers.
"
Everyone has understood that gas is a temporary resource, which will still be used for years, but which will give way, either to renewables or to nuclear
", also believes Didier Julienne.
"
It is quite possible that Europe will operate in the future with two sources of energy,
renewables
and
nuclear
, two decarbonized energies which are essential
to the
industrial and energetic future
" of the continent.
The quay development work carried out by the company TotalEnergies and GRTgaz is supposed to start in the fall of 2022, with the start of activity planned for 2023.
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