Authorities back close coordination in planning procedure
WINGAS and EWE cooperate with their natural gas storage facility projects in the Leer area
Kassel / Oldenburg, December 18, 2006. WINGAS GmbH (Kassel) and EWE AG (Oldenburg) will cooperate with the construction of their planned cavern storage facilities for natural gas in the Leer area as part of the planning and approval procedures at issue. Both companies want to install underground caverns for storing gas in the immediate vicinity of the German-Dutch border near Jemgum. Currently, WINGAS is examining the geological-technical conditions and plans to decide whether the storage facility will be built within the next months. The neighboring cavern storage facilities will be operated independently from one another by both companies.
The targeted cooperation has enabled the two companies to minimize the effects that construction of the gas storage facilities will have on the region. This means that the planning will be coordinated with the objective of interfering as little as possible with the nature, landscape and private property of the area. This is also the procedure targeted by local regulatory authorities.
A corresponding agreement has been signed by both companies, which refers in particular to the cooperation with the planning, approval and implementation of brine systems, which are required for creating the underground caverns. WINGAS and EWE will also coordinate with the planning of their respective storage stations and the cavern locations in order to guarantee the most efficient area usage possible.
“A secure energy supply for Europe is not possible without natural gas storage facilities, because only the use of storage facilities guarantees the stable availability of natural gas in the required amounts”, says Dr. Rainer Seele, Chairman of WINGAS GmbH in explaining the importance of the storage facility project. Storage facilities enable balancing between gas production and gas consumption, because additionally required gas volumes can be quickly taken from storage facilities at peak consumption times. Given that the European Union must import increasing amounts of natural gas, the need for additional gas storage facilities also increases accordingly.
Because of its underground salt domes, the area around Jemgum is especially well-suited for storing natural gas. The geological conditions open up the possibility of establishing storage caverns at depths of between 1,000 and 1,500 meters below the surface of the earth. These underground cavities, which are created artificially in the salt rocks, are ideal for storing natural gas.
“With this project EWE is consistently expanding its capacities in the storage facility services area, and in doing so utilizes its longstanding experience of more than 30 years in the construction and operation of gas storage facilities”, says EWE CEO, Dr. Werner Brinker. The project will also add to EWE’s contribution to the security of future natural gas supplies.
The location is also of strategic importance, as Russian natural gas from the Nord Stream Baltic Sea gas pipeline will be directed here, before going on to Holland and Britain.
Based in Oldenburg, EWE AG is one of the biggest energy companies in Germany. The Group’s range of services includes power, gas and water supply, environmental technology, gas transport and trade, as well as telecommunications and information technology. EWE consequently provides classic and innovative services from one single source.
The EWE network infrastructure features a high standard of technical quality, supply security and economically efficient operation. EWE ensured an early expansion of its core competencies in operating complex networks and its wide-ranging know-how of telecontrol and control technology to a future-oriented multi-service offering.
Outside of its traditional business operations in Northern Germany, EWE is now also a successful operator in the post-reunification German states and in Poland. The EWE Group operates an over 50,000-kilometer long natural gas transport and distribution network and generated turnover of EUR 7.4 bn in 2005.
www.ewe.de
European energy provider WINGAS GmbH supplies natural gas to customers in Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Austria and the Czech Republic. Its customers include municipal utilities, regional gas suppliers, industrial firms and power plants. Since 1990 WINGAS has invested more than 3 billion euros in the development of its own natural gas transport and storage infrastructure. WINGAS pipeline network, which is over 2,000 kilometers long, connects the major gas reserves in Siberia and in the North Sea to the growing markets in Western Europe. In Rehden in North Germany, WINGAS has the largest natural gas storage facility in Western Europe – with a working gas volume of over four billion cubic meters. Additional natural gas storage facilities are currently being built in Great Britain, Austria and Germany in order to secure the supply of natural gas in Europe.
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