The Dutch-British consortium examining the controversial production of natural gas off the North Sea island of Borkum says goodbye to part of the areas applied for. According to the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) in Lower Saxony, which is responsible for approval and supervision, the companies One-Dyas and Hansa Hydrocarbons returned a so-called permission field of more than 880 square kilometers. They had checked whether gas production in the offshore area a good 70 kilometers north-west of the East Frisian Islands would be worthwhile.
According to their assessment, this is apparently not the case after the “exploration” of gas or oil. “The companies cited the lack of hydrocarbon potential within this area as a reason,” said the LBEG on Thursday in Hanover. The application for return had already been made in October and is now effective.
objections from environmentalists
In two other sub-areas, which are closer to the islands and the coast, you can still search for the raw materials. The total area of these southern areas is larger than that of the returned third field. Permission to “explore” does not, however, include the commencement of concrete drilling – several further steps would have to be completed for this.
Only on Tuesday did the specialist authority announce that a dozen objections had been received, for example from environmentalists, against the funding project. These would be reviewed as part of the planning approval process.
One-Dyas and its partners plan to produce natural gas from a field between Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands) and Borkum from the end of 2024. The area is close to the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park. Drilling is to take place in both Dutch and German territorial waters. On the Dutch side, the authorities approved the funding in June – the German process is still ongoing.
Several North Sea islands and an alliance around the German Environmental Aid (DUH) had announced that they would sue the permission from the Netherlands. Even in the event of a permit from the German side, they plan to take action against the drilling. “We will exhaust all legal steps to stop this project,” emphasized DUH Federal Managing Director Sascha Müller-Kraenner.
What is in the new coalition agreement
Under the impression of the energy crisis, Lower Saxony’s former red-black state government reversed an original decision against natural gas production off Borkum in the summer. The coalition agreement of the new red-green cabinet now states that the “protection of the environment, nature, the Wadden Sea and the island” will be of central importance in the planning approval process. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) had said about the project: “It would be best to stop the gas production project.”
