A year ago the end of a 2500 meter deep pipe protruded from the forest floor. Where once natural gas was transported from inside the planet to the surface, a small pond is now freezing. In 26 years, 256 million cubic meters of combustible gas have been pumped out of the ground here. Now the pipe is no longer a pipe, but a two and a half kilometer deep column that goes down from the forest floor. Natural gas will no longer flow through this line. But possibly elsewhere in the Ebersberger Forest.
Wednesday lunchtime in one of the largest forests in southern Bavaria. Sandra Arndt’s company Neptune Energy had the drilling rights here for decades. Now the company spokeswoman presents the new look of the forest clearing. Together with the Wasserburg forestry company, Neptune Energie had the 4,000 square meter area converted into a biotope. Bushes, grasses, trees – and the pond and its inlet. A pipe and drilling free zone. However, according to Arndt, it “cannot be ruled out” that natural gas will be drilled elsewhere in the Ebersberg Forest.
For the company Neptune Energy on Wednesday in the Ebersberger Forst: Press spokeswoman Sandra Arndt and Günter Lügering, responsible for land affairs.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
Over the years, more and more locations for natural gas drilling in Bavaria have been put on hold or, as is now the case with Anzing, renatured. The system there had been put into operation in the 1970s, before it ran for the last time in 1997 and has now been made unusable. In this case, too, the reason is that the operation was no longer economically viable. Too little income with too much effort. However, the prices for natural gas have risen enormously recently. This currently comes almost exclusively from pipelines from abroad. And so it could be that locations like the Ebersberger Forst will become more interesting again.
The Ebersberger also have to be prepared for an explosion in gas prices
Germany gets more than half of its natural gas from Russia, according to the online portal Statista, the quota in October 2021 was 55.2 percent. It is followed by Norway with 30.6 percent and the Netherlands with 12.7 percent. Hardly any significant quantities are extracted within Germany, mostly in Lower Saxony, the state with the largest reserves. According to Statista, natural gas worth 385.2 million euros was produced nationwide in 2020. The imported goods were also valued at 19.9 billion euros.
The people in the district of Ebersberg, like all other users of natural gas in Germany, have to be prepared for significant price increases in the new year. In addition to the introduction of a CO2 tax, the background to this is the increase in network charges. Above all, however, a drastic rise in the international trade prices for crude oil is responsible for the price explosion. According to Sandra Arndt, it is “currently not absolutely conceivable” that drilling for natural gas in the Ebersberger Forest will take place again. This development is one of the reasons why she and her colleague Günter Lügering, who is responsible for land affairs at Neptune Energy Germany, leave a back door open for drilling work in the forest.
The recently created biotope near Anzing in the Ebersberger Forest.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
For the approximately 4,000 square meter forest clearing near Anzing, the renaturation of the area means that high-quality habitats for animals and plants will be created there. The activities of the district forester Wolfgang Richter and his colleagues are already beginning to be recognized. Not far from the mud and clay ponds, there are bushes supported by stakes, such as sea buckthorn, elderberry and sloe. The water is intended to provide a home for newts and frogs – and an adjoining house is intended for the colonization of bees.
The area freed up would be the right size for the construction of a wind turbine
For forest visitors, the forest company has set up a solid wooden table with benches on the edge of the biotope. Previously, this place looked deliberately less inviting. This was due to the remains of the facility, but above all to the metal fence with barbed wire. The fact that a wet biotope has now arisen here, according to Neptune Energy spokeswoman Arndt, is definitely “a specialty”. In the case of other closures, it is common for the area to be used for agriculture as a result.
The apiary should have residents again.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
When conventional energy sources become too expensive, thoughts of alternatives sometimes arise. In view of a now vacant rectangle of 4,000 square meters, the word wind turbine must be mentioned in this forest. Reason: For the controversial construction of up to five possible wind turbines in the Ebersberger Forest, several 3000 square meter holes would have to be created. A slightly larger area that is already unforested would therefore be ideal under certain circumstances.
Is the place with the underground concrete column suitable for wind power? Hardly likely. This is because wind turbines in Bavaria are sometimes denigrated as underground concrete pillars. For this reason, there is a 10-H distance rule in the Free State for such concrete pillars for wind energy – which are ultimately usually made above the sward. Not only, but also for this reason, explains the forestry company, the idea of a wind turbine on the former natural gas source has not yet been mentioned.