State Aid - LNG terminal operator sues against competition
Operator of Germany's first onshore LNG terminal in Lower Saxony challenges state aid for planned terminal in Brunsbüttel
The Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH), operator of Germany's first onshore LNG terminal in Stade, is suing the European Commission at the EU Court in Luxembourg. HEH argues that the Brussels authority wrongly approved state aid for the planned terminal in Brunsbüttel. Germany aims to use LNG to offset the loss of Russian gas supplies.
Plaintiff: State funds not necessary for Brunsbüttel project
HEH argues that the project could have been implemented without state funds. A regular market participant would have simply charged higher prices to customers and could have managed without state aid, according to HEH's lawyers. The support also encourages operators to run less efficiently.
The Stade project is led by the consortium Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH) based in Hamburg. HEH includes the Hamburg-based logistics company Buss Group, the Swiss private equity firm Partners Group, the Spanish grid operator Enagás, and the US chemical company Dow. Construction of the Stade terminal officially began at the end of June and is scheduled to start operating in 2027.
Germany involved with millions
The European Commission allowed the German government in July 2023 to support the Brunsbüttel terminal with state aid of 40 million euros. This amount does not correspond to investment costs but is linked to return calculations and was thus calculated by the European Commission, the Federal Ministry of Economics explained.
However, the federal government is involved with significantly more money. Around 740 million euros were earmarked in the 2022 budget, as shown in a letter from the Finance Ministry to the Budget Committee of the Bundestag in April 2022. The federal government holds a 50% stake in the company German LNG, responsible for the Brunsbüttel terminal, through the promotional bank KfW.
Lawsuit at the EU Court
The lawsuit follows the European Commission's decision to approve state aid, communicated in July 2023.
The European Union, as the governing body of the EU Court in Luxembourg, will be the judicial body overseeing HEH's lawsuit against the approval of state aid for the Brunsbüttel terminal. HEH, being part of the European Union, believes that the approved state aid for the Brunsbüttel terminal is not necessary for its implementation and that a regular market participant could have funded the project without it.
