“Completely out of date”
Gas from the North Sea – environmental aid sues against funding in front of Borkum
Before Borkum is to be drilled for gas. The project drew a lot of criticism.
Overcoming the energy crisis with domestic gas? What sounds obvious is tough and controversial in practice. Not just because environmentalists are up in arms.
Gas is becoming scarcer in Germany, which is why the federal and state governments are looking for alternatives. One could be natural gas production in the North Sea near the island of Borkum. But there is resistance to the project.
Now an alliance around the German Environmental Aid is taking legal action against the controversial project. Together with the Dutch environmental organization Mobilization for the Environment (MOB) and the citizens’ initiative Clean Air East Friesland, a lawsuit had been filed with the responsible court, the Rechtbank in The Hague, the environmental aid announced on Friday. The alliance fears that the drilling will have environmental consequences for the island of Borkum, the North Sea and the nearby Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park.
The alliance also criticizes a prolonged dependence on fossil gas. The funding plans of the Dutch company One-Dyas are “completely out of date”. “The plans have nothing to do with energy security: A small amount of fossil gas should not be promoted until 2024 at the earliest,” said Sascha Müller-Kraenner, the federal director of the German Environmental Aid. “On the other hand, the construction of a new platform in the North Sea will create a new infrastructure that will increase our long-term dependence on fossil fuels.”
Production of gas in the North Sea is viewed very critically on the islands
Not only environmental organizations, but also North Sea islands see the project critically, especially Borkum. The city also wants to sue against the natural gas production. A lawsuit is expected to be filed with the court in the Netherlands on Friday. A majority of the city’s management committee had previously voted in favor of a lawsuit. The deadline for complaints ends this Friday.
One-Dyas and its partners plan to set up a platform at sea and extract natural gas from a field between the islands of Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands) and Borkum. The platform is said to be located in the Dutch territorial sea, but only about 500 meters from German sovereign waters and about 20 kilometers off the coast of Borkum. The gas field is to have a recoverable total volume of up to 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Together with other surrounding areas, a total of up to 60 billion cubic meters is suspected – around half on German territory.
Dutch authorities have already agreed
On the Dutch side, the authorities gave the green light for funding at the beginning of June. According to the responsible Ministry of Economics in The Hague, the possible effects on the environment were examined. The submitted plans met all preconditions. Nevertheless, the conditions had been tightened because of the concerns of environmentalists, it was said at the time.
Approval for funding on the Lower Saxony side, which according to One-Dyas can begin at the end of 2024 at the earliest, is still pending. A planning approval process is currently under way. Under the impression of the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war, Lower Saxony’s state government recently reversed an original decision against production.