Bavarian premier calls for German shale solution
The premier of Bavaria has urged Germany's federal government to keep an "open mind" about ending its moratorium on shale gas exploration, as a means to achieve energy independence, local press reported on April 10.
In 2017, Germany introduced a temporary moratorium on hydraulic fracturing techniques that penetrate further below the surface into shale and coal seam formations, rather than fracking to release tight gas in sandstones. Germany is now under pressure to somehow balance its renewables target, of supplying 100% of power demand with renewable production by 2035, with the immediate priority of replacing Russian gas quantities that account for 40% of its overall energy mix.
The moratorium's initial sunset clause would have seen it lapse last year, but Berlin has sought to keep a lid on unconventional shale exploration, while also exploring tighter regulations on sandstone fracking. Bavarian premier Markus Soder is pressing for a rethink . He says it is the "constitutional duty" of federal politicians to examine shale's potential in terms of what is "possible and reasonable," particularly in light of the Ukraine war and the implications for German energy security. Politicians could take note of the shale exploration boom in the US, he argued, which led to it becoming "completely independent" of Middle Eastern oil and gas.
"As representatives of the people, we have the constitutional duty to keep an unbiased eye on all options in such extraordinary times of crisis," Soder said.
Public opinion has been widely supportive of the ban, which has held despite scientific evidence suggesting the risks to the public water supply may have been overstated. Estimates from Germany's geosciences and natural resources institute in 2016 indicated that between 32bn m3 and 2 trillion m3 of shale gas could be exploited in northern Germany from depths deeper than 1,000 metres.