Germany Delays Parliamentary Vote on Fracking

Germany delayed a parliamentary vote on a new legislative framework for fracking, as parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition did not find common ground on final details. The draft law passed by Cabinet in April apparently had paved the way for a vote in the Lower House of Parliament on Friday.

According to Reuters, the new rules stumbled upon the objections put forward by some Social Democrats (SPD). This then led to a postponement after the summer. 

On the other hand, the German oil and gas industry is asking for certainties, piling pressure on Merkel.

‘Natural gas production in Germany has declined by almost a third since 2011. This is because for almost four years now the ongoing discussion on shale gas has prevented projects from being approved that require the use of hydraulic fracking even for conventional gas production. This is therefore blocking established natural gas production’ BASF’s subsidiary Wintershall wrote on Monday.

Wintershall is asking for a stronger political support.  

Ovor the past four years, we have witnessed an almost complete standstill in domestic natural gas production. Wintershall is prepared to invest. But to do this, we need a reliable and, above all, proportionate regulatory framework,” Andreas Scheck, head of Wintershall Deutschland, commented at a press conference on Monday. 

According to Wintershall, around a third of the conventional natural gas extracted in Germany is recovered by means of hydraulic fracturing, in particular tight gas.