Germany wants to speed up construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, allowing it to import LNG at sea to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, amid tensions between Moscow and Western countries over Ukraine, the Berlin government said, AFP reports.

“The government’s plan is to develop LNG terminals in Germany,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a news briefing.

“Liquefied gas is an alternative to Russian gas imports,” he said, adding that “several terminal projects” are already underway, especially in the northern cities of Brunsbüttel and Stade.

These projects “need to be accelerated,” the spokesman said, as work on the two sites, inaugurated in 2019 by the Angela Merkel-led government, has not yet begun due to administrative and financial problems, according to Agerpres.

These projects, owned by private companies, are subsidized by public authorities.

LNG terminals allow the import of natural gas by sea, but Germany does not yet have any such equipment and receives all gas supplies through pipelines, most of them from Russia.

Such terminals would allow Berlin to diversify its suppliers by increasing orders from the US, Qatar or Canada.

Germany wants to reduce its dependence on Russian gas in the context of tensions between Moscow and Western countries.

Berlin’s position is seen as ambiguous in this crisis, between the imperative of solidarity with Western allies and Ukraine and the need to spare its large gas supplier.

At present, 50% of the gas imported by Germany comes from Russia.

According to government figures, 50% of German homes are heated by gas, which accounts for 26.7% of primary energy consumption.

The use of this energy would increase as part of the energy transition to replace nuclear and coal-based energy in support of renewable sources.