Good feedback and discussions in Lower Saxony 

Engaging in dialog, asking questions and getting answers. This is what the dialog events organised by OGE for its pipeline projects are all about. They were recently held for the North Sea Ruhr Link I and III pipeline sections, which will run through Lower Saxony, and were very well received and characterised by good, constructive discussions between the landowners, tenants, land managers, interested members of the general public and OGE’s project experts.

What the dialog events are all about

Landowners whose land is affected by a pipeline project have the opportunity to submit a statement as part of the public planning approval process. OGE wants to enter into a dialog at an earlier stage and therefore organises landowners' meetings before submitting the documents for the planning approval process to the authorities. The landowners can bring their tenants and land managers along to these meetings or forward the invitation to them. The landowners' meeting is a closed format which only the invited landowners / tenants / land managers can attend. At these meetings, the project management and specialist from OGE’s various departments present the project and are available for questions. 

This combination of landowners' meetings and subsequent ‘dialog markets’, which are open to interested members of the public, has proved successful. Questions can be asked and answers obtained either on information boards or in dialog with the OGE specialists. The aim of these events is to establish early communication between the parties and build a consistent dialog with local residents about the pipeline projects to answer initial questions. 

North Sea Ruhr Link I: A reunion of familiar faces in Jever

The North Sea Ruhr Link stretches from Wilhelmshaven to Wettringen, forming one of the central routes for the future German hydrogen transport infrastructure. It will bring hydrogen volumes from the northern coastal region to north-west Germany and is part of the hydrogen core network, which was approved by the German government and the Federal Network Agency in October 2024. North Sea Ruhr Link I (NRL I) and North Sea Ruhr Link III (NRL III) are sections of the North Sea Ruhr Link pipeline infrastructure.

North Sea Ruhr Link I ties into the Wilhelmshaven Coast Line (WKL) and runs for around 21 kilometres to Dykhausen. What’s special about this section is that 98% of this line runs parallel to the Wilhelmshaven Pipeline Link (WAL) built by OGE in 2022. As a result, the NRL I dialog event was a reunion of many familiar faces among the landowners, tenants and land managers and local residents. The project team that delivered WAL in 2022 are now responsible for NRL I.

"People know us here. They know what to expect from us and we know that we have a strong partner at our side in this region,"

explains Franz-Josef Kißing, technical project manager of NRL I. Both the landowners' meeting and the subsequent ‘dialog market’ were very well received. The discussions were harmonious and very constructive.

North Sea Ruhr Link III: Seven events from Bunde to Emsbüren

North Sea Ruhr Link III is the 122 km long section of the North Sea Ruhr Link from Bunde to Wettringen in Westphalia. It will run through the districts of Bunde, Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim. Due to the length of this pipeline section, the project team organised a total of seven events, one each in Geeste, Wietmarschen, Emsbüren, Rhede, Dörpen/Heede, Haren and Bunde, giving some 650 guests the chance to learn more about the pipeline project. "We want to inform people about our project as early as possible and pick them up where they are. That's why these events are central part of project communication," explains Frank Teiber, Head of Real Estate Law and RoW Acquisition. NRL III project manager Michael Stroetmann drew a positive conclusion from the seven events: 

"We are delighted that the local residents responded so well to our events and that we were able to hold many good discussions and help them with their queries. We also took away valuable insights that could be helpful for the further course of the project."

At all of the events, landowners were able to find out about the planning status from specialists in OGE’s route planning department and had the opportunity to discuss their individual concerns. However, as with any other pipeline construction project at OGE, the route will not be finalised until the planning decision notice has been issued.

The project teams for North Sea Ruhr Link I and North Sea Ruhr Link III are currently in the process of preparing the application documents for the planning approval process. The plan is to have these documents ready for submission to the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) before the end of this year. NRL III will run as far as Wettringen in Westphalia where the district government of Münster is the authority in charge. A dialog event for this section of the NRL III is planned for May, and the project team here is also planning to submit the documents to the authorities this year.