Shale Gas Developments in Germany
An article in Der Spiegel discusses the development of shale gas in Germany.
Activities by ExxonMobil are highlighted. The company has secured concessions in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia and Der Spiegel reports that Exxon has conducted drilling a total of five times, with two more test wells planned by end of 2010.
The article also dates that BNK Petroleum has secured licenses in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, which extend to about 9,700 square kilometers of land - equivalent to around 2.7 percent of the total area of the Federal Republic of Germany.
3 Legs Resources hold licenses for 2,550 square kilometers in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Realm Energy International has secured a small section of 64 square kilometers 100 miles west of Hanover.
The German Government has high hopes for shale gas development. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) has received € 7.1 million from the Ministry of Research, to explore potential of unconventional gas production.
Unconventional gas resources would allow Germans to ‘emancipate themselves’ from the ‘energy-hegemony of Russia.’ The development of new resources would also be attractive to the German energy mix: as increased power production from gas and gas-fired plants would generate only about half as much CO2 emissions as coal power plants.
There article touches on the requisite discussion of the environmental risks related to energy development and on some of the negative consequences experienced in some US communities and discussed in the documentary ‘Gasland’, which are attributed by some to shale gas development.
The German Government is planning research into potential risks, however the focus at the moment is investigating rock formations for possible gas reservoirs, where unconventional gas production could be used.
Environmental risks, we have not yet been explored," says Hans-Martin Schulz from the GFZ. "Currently we are collecting first ideas for a concept of how this area should be explored. Environmental issues are examined later than 2011."
Der Speigel writes that Exxon is already using hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracing’ in its shale gas activities in Lower Saxony. "With decades ExxonMobil's usual highest safety and environmental standards," says communications chief Heinrich Stapelberg. The Exxon spokesperson would not disclose the composition and concentration of the fracing fluids for "competitive reasons," saying it is "the best kept recipe for each society."
Read the Full Article (in German)