A first appeal was filed in January. A second, filed in April, targets the state decree authorizing the operation of the site.
A hearing will take place on July 6 before the Rouen administrative court, seized by France Nature Environnement (FNE) of two appeals against a floating LNG terminal project in Le Havre, AFP learned this Wednesday from the court.
In the context of increased tensions over energy since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the French State has selected a floating LNG terminal project led by TotalEnergies and intended to create a new gas entry point in France.
Commissioning in September
The specialized vessel Cape Ann, which will serve as a floating terminal, “will be commissioned in September, after having carried out the necessary tests. Its arrival date in Le Havre remains to be finalized”, TotalEnergies indicated on Wednesday.
FNE Normandie’s first appeal, filed in January, attacks the prefectural decree authorizing the installation of pipes connecting the boat to the gas network on land. The second, filed in April, is the decree of the State authorizing the operation of the site.
For FNE, the whole should have been the subject of an environmental assessment, with impact study and public inquiry, like large infrastructures of this type.
Its creation is permitted “if it is necessary to increase national liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing capacities in order to ensure security of supply” by the purchasing power law of August 2022.
But “there is no serious threat to the gas supply of the country”, already equipped with four terminals, adds FNE, through the voice of its lawyer Alice Béral.
The “usefulness” of the terminal called into question
Greenpeace also refutes in a report on Wednesday “the real usefulness” of this terminal in relation to the consumption of the country.
For the Ministry of Energy Transition, “the threat to gas supply was very significant when the war in Ukraine broke out: 40% of Europe’s gas supply came from Russia.”
In an “uncertain geopolitical context, the floating LNG terminal is important to deal with all scenarios (including that of a cold winter),” the ministry said on Wednesday.
“It is not a question of increasing gas consumption, we are doing everything to reduce it (…) This infrastructure is floating and reversible, with a maximum operating life of 5 years”.
The Cape Ann ship, fitted with regasification equipment, will be able to inject around 10% of France’s annual gas consumption, from LNG carriers that have come to supply it with LNG (liquefied gas) from Norway, Algeria, Qatar, the United States. United, Nigeria or Egypt.
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