Status: 09/23/2022 10:14 a.m
The UK fracking moratorium has been lifted. This makes it possible again to extract oil and gas from deep layers of rock. In Germany and other countries, the debates about fracking are in full swing.
The controversial oil and gas extraction method fracking has been possible again in Great Britain since yesterday. The new British government under Prime Minister Liz Truss lifted the fracking moratorium introduced in 2019. In Germany, too, where commercial unconventional fracking projects are not permitted, there is a debate about a possible end to the ban.
Hydraulic fracturing – fracking for short – is a process to extract oil and gas from deep layers of rock with the help of pressure and chemicals. Conventional fracking takes place primarily in sandstone, while unconventional fracking takes place in rock strata that are difficult to develop, such as shale or coal seam rock.
However, the consequences for the environment and nature range from high water consumption and groundwater pollution to earthquakes, which is why the technology is heavily criticized. Due to the sometimes significant impact on the environment, many European countries put their fracking plans on hold a few years ago. Fracking from unconventional deposits has been banned in Germany, France, Denmark, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.
fracking in the United States
In the USA, on the other hand, the procedure is still permitted in many states and has been carried out there successfully for years. Within a few years, the United States has made itself independent of energy imports from abroad and three years ago even became a net energy exporter. The US state of Pennsylvania, for example, proudly describes itself as the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas”. In the USA, the fracking boom initially led to a significant drop in gas prices.
With Russia’s war in Ukraine and curtailed Russian energy supplies to Europe, fracked gas from the US is becoming an increasingly important source of energy for Europe. The fracked gas is liquefied and transported to Europe by ship. The European states are already receiving fracking gas through the back door – an additional 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are to be shipped to Europe this year alone. Most of it is obtained via fracking.
Domestic funding an option?
Europe would be well advised to pursue all sensible domestic production options, wrote Ludwig Möhring, general manager of the German Natural Gas, Oil and Geoenergy Association (BVEG), this month. This is advisable in terms of climate policy, since LNG requires 20 percent of the natural gas to liquefy, transport and regas it again – with a corresponding CO2 footprint. “Shale gas production would be an option for Germany,” Möhring continued.
The issue is politically controversial. in the ARD Germany trend from August on the energy policy measures, only 27 percent considered the promotion of so-called fracking gas in Germany to be right, 56 percent wrong. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) expressed in one ARD-Interview this month that fracking capacity should be used where it is responsible. “Not in every place, but where there is no danger to drinking water, where there is no geological danger, that should also be possible.”
NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) told the “Rheinische Post” that fracking is irresponsible in a region “in which we get a lot of our drinking water from water layers near the surface that would have to be penetrated during fracking”. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU), on the other hand, spoke in the “Tagesspiegel” in August for the promotion of fracking gas in Germany as a substitute for Russian natural gas.
Great Britain goes one step further
In the UK, they are already one step ahead and want to examine all options for generating energy – including fracking. “No option should be off the table to improve our energy security because that is the main issue we face,” said Prime Minister Truss. Her predecessor Boris Johnson was even more skeptical about the way natural gas was extracted. “I have to say I have my doubts that it will turn out to be a panacea,” he said last month. According to Truss, shale gas production could start as early as six months.
In 2019, the British government imposed a fracking moratorium. In 2018 and 2019, exploration triggered a series of earthquakes in the county of Lancashire – the strongest tremor measured 2.9 on the Richter scale. UK Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said activity of 2.5 and under “occurs millions of times a year around the world”.
Chris Cornelius, geologist and founder of Cuadrilla Resources, which fracks in Lancashire, said in an interview with the “Guardian” that he considers the British government’s support for fracking to be just a political gesture. He ruled out fracking in the UK in the near future. According to Cornelius, no sensible investor would take the risk of embarking on large projects. The geology there is more challenging compared to North America.
“Even if the risks were to prove manageable and acceptable, shale gas would only have a significant impact on UK supplies if thousands of successful wells were drilled over the next decade,” said Andrew Aplin, a professor at Durham University.
Fracking an option?
Fracking has not been an issue in Germany for a long time, says Mirko Schlossarczyk from the energy consulting firm Enervis. For many years, the price of gas was so low that fracking was not worth it. According to estimates by Enervis, gas fracking in North America is already competitive from a natural gas price of just under 20 euros per megawatt hour. Europe and Germany in particular need a natural gas price of around 40 to 60 euros per MWh. Even though the price of gas has fallen recently, a megawatt hour of gas still costs around 190 euros. Given today’s gas price, fracking is economically interesting, the energy expert said tagesschau.de.
However, this requires a suitable and long-term stable legal framework. And even if such a legal framework were created – companies could still say that it wasn’t worth it. From Schlossarczyk’s point of view, the entire infrastructure cannot be set up quickly, after all, it would involve large investments and also mining.
In addition, the environmental concerns about fracking cannot be dismissed out of hand. Germany and Europe are far more densely populated than the United States, for example. The effects of fracking in the form of earthquakes are therefore much more noticeable in Europe than in the USA, says Schlossarczyk.
Depending on local conditions
Charlotte Krawczyk, Professor of Geophysics and Chair of the Fracking Expert Commission, says tagesschau.dethat no generalized statement can be made in advance for a possible fracking of unconventional deposits in Germany. Whether and in what form drilling is possible depends primarily on local conditions. In order to be able to assess the natural system, the expert commission therefore recommends monitoring for one year. According to Krawczyk, “exploitation”, i.e. the exploitation of resources, is always preceded by exploration.
Not everything about the process is completely new, in Germany there is already drilling at conventional deposits. In order to be able to frack unconventional deposits, however, a change in the law is necessary, the federal states also have a say, and all mining law issues have to be processed. That is also one of the arguments why there will be no quick solution for this winter, Krawczyk notes.
In addition, the actual potential of many deposits is not fully known. According to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), on average, 800 billion cubic meters of shale gas are expected to be found in Germany – with annual consumption in Germany of around 90 billion cubic meters, the resources would not even be sufficient for ten years. Although the value can be significantly higher, it can also be far lower.