German Gas Production Falls Again
German indigenous gas production declined again last year, according to industry data. It fell 8% to 7.25bn m3 – having fallen from 7.9bn m3 in 2016 and 8.6bn m3 in 2015 – while oil production fell by 6% to 2.2mn metric tons (44,000 b/d), said the country’s producers association BVEG March 13. Reserves at end-2017 were respectively 58.9bn m3 and 28.3mn mt, its 2017 statistical report added.
Germany’s gas demand however rose by 5.2% in 2017 to some 85.5bn m3, according to preliminary data released late December by industry thinktank AGEB. Thus German production accounted for 8.5% of consumption last year.
Nonetheless BVEG managing director Christoph Lower said that domestic production reduces dependency on imports: “A good 20,000 people earn a living from oil and gas production in Germany, 8,385 of them directly working at BVEG member companies. About €250mn of taxes were paid in 2017 to the federal states.” Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) accounted for 7bn m3 (or 96.6%) of German gas production, nearly all of it produced onshore. Saxony-Anhalt accounted for 1.8% and Schleswig-Holstein 1.2%.
Main producers, by equity production, were BEB with 40.5% of the total (2.9bn m3), Mobil Erdgas Erdol with 24% (1.7bn m3) and Russian-owned DEA 18% (1.3bn m3) and Wintershall 7% (0.5bn m3) – all volumes being lower year on year. ExxonMobil operates both BEB and Mobil.