Gas Reserves in Germany: Fracking for Independence?

Germany has its own gas reserves in shale rock, which could be extracted with fracking. But for water protection reasons, this method has been banned since 2017. Is there a rethink now?

A surprising boom began in the USA in the early 2000s. A new method made it possible to extract natural gas trapped in hard rock, especially shale. Water is pressed into the rock through a borehole, which creates cracks through which the gas can escape. There are now hundreds of thousands of such wells. The USA uses it to produce so much gas that they export it by tanker all over the world – including to Germany.

So the idea of ​​using such a technology in Germany seems logical. There are large amounts of shale rock, especially in the north-west, and theoretically there is enough natural gas to cover up to 20 percent of Germany’s needs for many years. The industry association of the conveyor industry, BVEG, is somewhat more cautious; he thinks maybe half of that could be really commercially viable. But only if politicians and the public really want it.

Why fracking was banned in Germany

There were already plans to frack in Germany more than ten years ago. Test drillings took place in Lower Saxony and in the Münsterland. The resistance was great. There were particular concerns about drinking water. Chemicals have to be added to ensure that the mixture of sand and water required for fracking functions properly underground. Some of them are carcinogenic and toxic. There is concern that these toxins could also reach higher drinking water layers through cracks in the rock. But toxicologists and geologists see an even bigger problem: the water eventually flows back up through the borehole. In the process, toxins present in the rock are also released: arsenic, bromine, radioactive strontium. None of this should get into water or soil under any circumstances.

In the USA, fracking often takes place in deserts. There, the toxic brew is often simply allowed to evaporate and the remaining sludge is dumped as hazardous waste. Where there is a cooler, damp climate, like in Germany, and drinking water is at risk, it is often forced back into empty underground gas storage tanks. However, leaks have occurred time and again, and strata and water have been polluted. But those are manageable problems, say proponents. Despite this, fracking was banned in Germany in 2017 after massive public protests.

Solvable problems?

Advocates of fracking point out that there has so far only been isolated real environmental damage in the USA, despite several hundred thousand wells. In addition, stricter technical standards can be guaranteed in Germany. However, the large number of wells drilled in the USA reveals another problem. The gas only flows out of the rock for a comparatively short time, and the production volumes drop quickly. You have to keep drilling, fracking, and in some areas of the USA there are hundreds of kilometers of wells spaced a few hundred meters apart; in densely populated Germany something like this would be unthinkable.

Here, too, the association BVEG refers to optimization potential. You could drill several kilometers to the side from one well site, produce hundreds of fracks from one point and keep the surface area requirements tolerable. However, precise information for each production area is only possible once test drilling has been carried out there and the situation examined. And this leads to what is probably the biggest problem: the effort.

A lot of effort for a bridging technology?

Even if politicians decide to go this route and citizen protests can be appeased, it would be at least three years before the first gas could be pumped. Relevant production volumes would only be expected in ten years. In that time, an entire industry would have to be rebuilt – for drilling rigs, fracking chemicals and water treatment. Natural gas was actually only planned as a bridging technology. By 2045 at the latest, Germany should be climate-neutral, with only hydrogen being burned instead of natural gas.

Economic researchers doubt that it makes sense to rebuild such a complex technology – only to then promote just ten percent of today’s gas consumption for little more than ten years. They point out that the immense effort that would have to be made for this would be better invested in the faster development of long-term sustainable forms of energy: photovoltaics, wind power, hydrogen and storage.

The ARD business magazine plusminus reported on this topic in the program on May 27, 2022 at 9:45 p.m.