FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Baltic Sea import terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Mukran on Ruegen island has received its operating permit under federal and state laws, private operating company Deutsche ReGas said on Wednesday.
"Deutsche ReGas is making an even greater contribution to the secure supply of gas to eastern Germany, its eastern European neighbours and the industrial locations in southwest Germany," it said in a press release.
Approvals for the regasification terminal were received under federal pollution laws and water laws in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, it said.
Germany has intensified its quest to increase LNG capacity for regasification on its shores since Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted European countries seek to reduce their heavy reliance on Russian gas.
The terminal, called Deutsche Ostsee, has capacity of up to 13.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year to be received by floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) and to be fed into onshore gas transport networks.
Germany last year consumed 83.2 bcm of gas for industry and heating.
Wintershall Dea and SEFE subsidiary Gascade, a gas pipeline operator, completed the 50km Ostsee-Anbindungsleitung (OAL) link in February to hook up Mukran with onshore grids, coinciding with the arrival of the Energos Power FSRU.
The Mukran project has triggered local opposition from environmental groups that say that wildlife and tourism could suffer from the new infrastructure and that there is sufficient gas import capacity elsewhere.