PLANS FOR INCREASE OF GAS AND COKE PRODUCTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A004201040003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2002
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 23, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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? CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY , REPORT NO.
INFORMATION Co NO.
COUNTRY Zest Germany
SUBJECT
25X1A
RACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF
INFO.,
Plans for Increase of Gas and Coke Production
6?36,241
Ot.
25X1A
DATEMEnli, 3.aupg 1954
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25X1X
SOURCE
25X1A
I. In January_ a954, tha,Eaet German Ministerium fuer Schwerindustrie (Ministry for
Heavy Industry) ? examinSd the problem of an eepansion of the industry in
connection.yith.ae incrpasd gas Troductton..The-plan-waLto proiuce about
12,000,006 cubic meters of gas in 1955 and later to increase thie production to
20,000,00G or 21,000,000 cubic meters. The idea was to obtain energy from gas
prods-Ted from coal rather than :directly from coal as previously.
The "new course" provided for eee erection of new carbonization plants to
produce gas and coke as well as for an increase in the production of the
existing large low-temperature carbonization plants in Central Gerwane. A
new earbonization plea was eceeduled to to erected at Kaefernhaieteuause
the largest coal deposits of the GDR are located there. Other large instal-
lations are to be erected in the Lausitz, where alliost inexhaustible esal
deposits are available. The latter region was planned to become a new center
of the East Gernan industry.
3, The East German industry would lose It! coal bases in S,0 or 50 years if the
present excessive rate of coal extraction were osetinued. As a result, coal
would have to be ship Imethe industeial plants involved. For this reason
it appears unfeasible- Fie PUNA and LEUTZA works and numerous other industrial.
plants in Central Germany.
4, Other coal processing plants eust therefore be erected in the Lausitz region.
It is envisaged to build coking plants, which yield large quantities of gas
besides coke which is urgently needed. A large-scale gas delivery system
Is to be built. In contrast to all previous plans, power stations would be
converted to gas burning (e.g, the Klingenberg powor station) rather than raw
ligelLe. Large eon:meters mien as the city, of Berlin would no longer be furnish&.
with briquettes but supplied eith amt. This would be the best solution from
an eeoneeic point of view. it further benefit would be the elimination
Cf soot in the large cities.
-f- r?? k ? C&I.1141I'..11
Approved For Release 2002/07/24: CIA-RoP80-00810A004201040003-7
Approved For Releaser200.2/07/24 : CIA-RDP80-00810A004201040003-7
SECRET
2 e.
5. It is also planned to erect, in the vicinity of the briquette plant in
Trattendorf one or two large coking plants and to raise the productio* ,
of the Lauchhammer coking plant to 12240,000 tons per year. 1oreover2
it is envisaged to Trocess 10-rade brown Coal rich in ashes into gas
by meane of the oxygen-pressure method. Three oxygen-pressure gas producing
plants will be included in the next 6-year plan covering the period from
1955 to 1960. One of these new plants will be erected somewhere in Central
Germany and ths other two plants in the Lausitz region, i.e0 near the
Greifenhain open pit- mine and near the Trattendorf power station. The
preparations for the erection of these plants were to begin in 1954.
Construction work on one of them was to be started in 1955.
25X1A
1-1Comment. Aside from the reasons given in the present report it
is believed that East German authorities plan - an increase in the
production of gas and the expansion of the gas networks for the simple
reason that the production of electric energy is insufficient. Heinrich
Ran,GDR Deputy Zria Minister, etated that the supply of electric energy
in East Germany would continue to be a bottleneck even after the euocessful
conclusion in the Five-year Flan.
25X1A
13 I agegao Probably Mathewits-Raeferhsin
SECRET
Approved For Release 2002/07/24: CIA-RDP80-00810A004201040003-7
25X1A