Wintershall Holding GMBH has abandoned plans for further scientific research into shale gas in two fields in western Germany.
The company said it had planned to retrieve rock samples from a maximum depth of 300 m, “with no deep wells or fracking.” In late January however, the Arnsberg district government rejected an application to extend permits for the Ruhr and Rheinland fields in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, officially stating that it “wanted to set an example.”
Martin Bachmann, Wintershall’s head of exploration and production for Europe and Middle East, said, “It’s regrettable that scientific findings and technological expertise have so little weight in this decision and that open-ended exploration is being politically blocked.”
The company said a package of fracking regulations approved by the Bundestag national parliament last summer is now fully in force as of mid-February. Hydraulic fracturing in traditional natural gas production is still allowed, but is subject to stricter regulations. In unconventional reservoirs, only a small number of research projects will initially be possible.
Wintershall said the Arnsberg district government, in its decision, referred to a fracking ban in the state development plan of North Rhine-Westphalia. But that ban has been declared illegal in a report commissioned by the Federal Association for Natural Gas, Crude Oil and Geoenergy.
The nationwide ban on fracing in unconventional reservoirs will be reviewed again in 2021, Wintershall said (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2015).