German oil and gas output fell in 2022

Vermilion Energy

18/04/2023 08:43

FRANKFURT, April 18 (Reuters) - Germany's domestic oil
production fell 5.6% to 1.7 million tonnes in 2022 while gas
output was down 7.7% at 4.8 billion cubic metres (bcm), industry
association BVEG said on Tuesday.
    BVEG groups 77 companies involved in producing what is left
of German gas and oil reserves, including Neptune Energy,
Vermilion Energy  VET.TO , Wintershall Dea  WINT.UL   BASFn.DE 
and BEB, a joint venture of ExxonMobil  XOM.N  and Shell
 SHEL.L .
    The companies achieved turnover of 5 billion euros ($5.48
billion) from their German activities, up from 1.9 billion euros
a year earlier, reflecting higher market prices, BVEG said.
    Production of oil in Germany peaked in the 1960s and in the
1990s. Since then, reserves have fallen, making the country
dependent on imports and exposing it to supply politics in
relation to Russia.
    BVEG Managing Director Ludwig Moehring said domestic gas and
oil output should be maximised to reduce dependency on prices
and supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the
global market.
    Germany last year sourced about 5.5% of its gas demand and
2% of its oil demand from domestic sources and about 2% of its
oil demand, BVEG said, citing official data.
    Germany has 22.9 billion cubic metres of underground gas
storage, which equated to 26% of annual consumption in 2022.
    Globally, German storage capacity is the fourth-highest
behind the United States, Russia and Ukraine.
    Key figures from BVEG's annual report as follows:
  
                                     2022          2021
 Indigenous gas production        4.8 bcm       5.2 bcm
 Indigenous oil production      1.7 mln T     1.8 mln T
 Exploration taxes paid         392 mln €     114 mln €
 Estimated domestic gas          36.4 bcm      32.4 bcm
 reserves*                                 
 Estimated domestic oil        23.7 mln T    23.3 mln T
 reserves*                                 
 Employees                          6,133         7,669
    * secure and probable reserves numbers combined


($1 = 0.9125 euros)

 (Reporting by Vera Eckert
Editing by Friederike Heine and David Goodman)
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 2201 33654;
@EckertVera;))