Energy supply
Germany’s fossil fairy tale
Germany wants to become more independent in energy supply and tap into more own gas fields. Environmentalists are alarmed. Rightly right? A look at the reserves.
It is in the coalition agreement, and recently Economic Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) has reaffirmed: the black and red government wants to promote more domestic gas. His fossil dependency will be one of the top ten worldwide gas importers and has to buy 95 percent of its consumption in Norway, the Netherlands, the USA and Belgium, among other things.
The plans also appear contradictory against the background that Germany strives for a green future and wants to be climate -neutral in 2050 at the latest. How does that fit together and where can Germany still drill?
Energy safety does climate protection?
The history of German gas production is over 70 years old – the oil production is much older. An estimated 21 billion cubic meters of oil are below the Federal Republic, with natural gas it is considerably more. Alone: This is not enough for self -sufficiency: the funding volumes of oil and gas cover just about two or five percent of nationwide needs.
Around 99 percent of German gas reserves are stored in the gas province of Lower Saxony. Geologists assume that there are further reserves throughout Germany, but there are no evidence of this, and it is also unclear whether the gas could be encouraged at all.
The federal government is very promising from the Gasfeld N05-A, which extends in both German and Dutch territory off the Borkum coast. The Dutch company One Dyas estimates that it can take a gas between 4.5 and 13 billion cubic meters there. At the beginning of July, the federal government signed an agreement with the neighboring country – the license to drill.
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A little later, the Canadian Group Central European Petroleum (CEP) came across a fossil field in the Baltic Sea. Wollin East is said to include 22 million tons of oil and five billion cubic meters of gas. Much of it is off the coast of Poland, a small part also in the German area. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Minister of Agriculture immediately demanded that the German oil reserves are not funded. The Federal Government also said cautiously- to the delight of climate and environmentalists.
Conflicts are repeatedly ignited on fossil funding projects. Environmental associations are already complaining to the approved holes in the Wadden Sea Nature Conservation Park. In Bavaria, Greenpeace activists are currently protesting against a controversial natural gas bore near the Ammersee and referring to the legal opinion of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which obliges all states to do their best to reach the 1.5-degree goal.
New funding projects are also questionable from a climate science perspective. The knowledge that is generated in new gas funding projects could make further drilling projects economically attractive and profitable – at the expense of the climate goals.
Gas consumption in Germany goes back
Environmentalists are very likely to stop the federal government’s gas plans. Stand now the fossil resource promotion in Germany is likely to remain a temporary business. The secure and probable reserves have been declining so far and are likely to be enough for eight years because the gas and oil fields in Germany are increasingly exhausted and more holes are ended than newly shown, according to the annual report by the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) in Lower Saxony.
The reason for this is also stricter approval processes and strict environmental protection requirements. For example, the energy company Wintershall Dea made an application in Schleswig-Holstein years ago in order to promote newly discovered gas reserves. The company is still waiting for approval today.
In addition, the demand for oil and gas in Germany also drops. The tendency has hardly been noticeably emerging for about 20 years, but should increase significantly against the background of the desired energy transition on the way towards climate neutrality by 2050.
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The path into a green future has long since taken and irreversible, that is undisputed among climate scientists and economists. This is confirmed by the enormous boom in green technologies in China, which is currently becoming the market leader. That confirms. And this confirms the view of the German power supply, which has been largely operated with wind power and solar systems for the first time since 2023.
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A spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment also recently pointed out that “the business with fossil fuels will be less and less worthwhile in the next few years” – not only because of the offer. “All investors in fossil infrastructures need to know that the promotion of oil and gas is a business with a clear end and the EU’s climate neutrality is limited to 2050.”
The federal government also knows that. Only the energy transition cannot be implemented overnight. Even if the proportion of renewable energies is steadily increasing, Germany is still dependent on fossil fuels. And natural gas, the Merz cabinet, Economic Minister Reiche and the fossil lobby emphasize, is the most climate-friendly of all fossil fuels compared to coal and oil-especially if it is funded in Germany instead of imported. However, the gas domestic is not emission -free.
Source: Stern
