Poland’s major oil discovery in Baltic Sea carries too many risks for exploitation – German economists
Clean Energy Wire / Tagesspiegel
Exploiting a recent oil discovery in Poland’s section of the Baltic Sea could come with substantial costs to tourism and environmental protection, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has warned. The reserve, located off the island of Usedom at the Polish-German border, is estimated to hold about 200 million barrels of oil as well as significant natural gas reserves. It could cover up to five percent of Poland’s oil demand for several years, the DIW found.
However, extracting the oil could harm tourism revenues on the Baltic shore, while potential accidents would come with incalculable cross-border clean-up costs, the institute said. “At the same time, fossil energy extraction runs counter to climate protection targets. The costs outweigh the benefits. Extraction therefore cannot be recommended,” said DIW researcher Claudia Kemfert.
Kemfert added that the finding will likely strengthen Poland’s position in a debate around the oil refinery Schwedt on the Polish-German border, which has suffered from a drop in supply due to energy trading sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The refinery currently operates at about half of its capacity and would require deliveries from Poland as an alternative to Russian supplies. However, Poland so far insists that Russian energy company Rosneft be expropriated as a shareholder in the refinery before expanding cooperation. Germany’s economy ministry recently said it has no legal pathway to force Rosneft out of the refinery, newspaper Tagesspiegel reported.
Germany recently agreed to exploit a natural gas reserve in the North Sea together with the neighbouring Netherlands. Environmental activists achieved a temporary halt to the preparation works in the sensitive Wadden Sea ecological region before extraction could commence. However, the coalition treaty between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) included a commitment to tap into the potential of domestic gas extraction.
