Germany's Energy Transition Dream at Risk of Becoming Nightmare

"Across the political spectrum, natural gas was seen as the ideal partner for renewables, but what has actually happened in Germany is that coal has in fact gained ground again, while natural gas is increasingly coming under pressure. In Germany, it is the fuel that is most harmful to the climate – coal – that is partnering solar and wind power … That is climate policy madness!"

Bachmann's view echoes similar comments made by Frances Egan, CEO of UK shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources, in February this year that the environmental lobby is "making the 'perfect' the enemy of the 'good'".

At Wintershall's press conference Wednesday, Bachmann and his colleague – Wintershall Norge Managing Director Bernd Schrimpf – highlighted that Norway is the second-most important energy supplier to Germany after Russia. They pointed to recent research, commissioned by Wintershall, that 78 percent of Germans would favor Norway as a reliable partner to make up for declining natural gas production in the rest of the EU. Sixty-two percent named Canada and 45 percent named the United States, while only 38 percent named Russia.

Schrimpf added that Wintershall has set its sights on producing 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day on the Norwegian Continental Shelf by 2015, with the Knarr and Edvard Grieg fields playing a part in achieving this figure. Meanwhile, the Maria discovery, with its estimated production volume of around 130 million barrels of crude oil in addition to 2 billion cubic feet of gas, is set to begin production in 2018.

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