German Vice Chancellor against plans to extract gas from the North Sea

BERLIN, August 16 (Reuters) – German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck is against plans to drill for natural gas in the German-Dutch border region of the North Sea, he said in an interview excerpt published on Friday with the magazine Spiegel, saying that this was not necessary for energy supplies.

The state of Lower Saxony had cleared the way for the project in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left Germany in great difficulty in securing its energy supply.

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The planned project is not necessary to secure Germany’s energy supply, said Habeck of the Greens’ environmental party, which governs together with the Social Democrats and the business-friendly FDP.

The protection of nature and the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, appear to be “weighty arguments” against the realization of the drilling project, the excerpt continued.

The private Dutch company ONE-Dyas estimates that it can produce up to 13 billion cubic metres of gas from the N05-A gas field off the German island of Borkum over several years.

That would correspond to about 17 percent of the almost 77 billion cubic meters that Germany consumed last year alone.

Habeck also expressed skepticism about the legal prospects of the project, which received approval from the country’s energy authority this week that “would certainly be challenged.”

An agreement is currently being negotiated between Germany and the Netherlands, as the waters of both countries would be affected.

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer, text by Miranda Murray, editing by Rachel More)