Natural gas exploration projects across Germany progress

Natural gas exploration projects in Germany are making headway, with drilling starting in the southern state of Bavaria and a cable connection being approved for a project in the North Sea.

In Bavaria, drilling has begun at a test site after months of protests against the project, news network RND reported. There had already been an exploratory project in the 1980s, but it was shelved due to a lack of profitability, according to RND. Rising energy prices since have led to a reassessment. The test would last four weeks, and if successful, could lead to gas extraction over a period of 10 to 15 years, according to RND. 

Climate NGO Greenpeace said the project could mark the start of further drilling in the region and beyond, with extraction possible at 10 sites below the Lech floodplains by the end of 2026. “What is happening here in Reichling is wrong,” said Saskia Reinbeck from Greenpeace Bavaria. “Every additional natural gas deposit that is exploited fuels the climate crisis.”

Domestic production of fossil gas plays only a minor role in Germany's supply, which is mainly made up of imports from Norway, the US and other countries. Germany covers around five percent of its gas demand from domestic supplies, which have been falling since the early 2000s. New gas projects are unlikely to significantly alter the share of domestic production in total gas supply. 

Meanwhile, a court has cleared the way for the laying of an undersea cable meant to provide wind energy to a gas extraction project at the other end of the country, near the island of Borkum, in the North Sea, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. A higher regional court in the city of Lüneburg overturned a decision by a lower court to temporarily halt the construction of the cable, which followed a lawsuit by environmental NGO DUH. It had warned that the project could cause irreversible damage to the protected Wadden Sea biotope.

DUH called the ruling a serious setback and fatal signal for climate policy. “In the middle of a reef protected by European law, the way is being cleared for new fossil fuel infrastructure – against all climate policy common sense,” said DUH head Sascha Müller-Kraenner.

In June, the German government had greenlit the project jointly developed with the Netherlands to exploit natural gas resources in the North Sea, implementing a proposal from the coalition treaty between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) to tap into the potential of domestic gas extraction.