Justin Jacobs, LONDON: ExxonMobil is pressing ahead with unconventional-gas exploration in Germany, despite opposition from environmental activists and a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in North Rhine-Westphalia.
North Rhine-Westphalia is believed to be prospective for shale gas, with some analysts suggesting the state’s potential reserves could be as high as 59.4 billion cubic metres.
“We expect to invest in the hundreds of millions during the exploration phase,” Gernot Kalkoffen, the head of the US supermajor’s Central European operations, told German business daily Handelsblatt last week. He added that if early-stage exploration was successful, “it could mean an investment of billions of dollars.”
But Kalkoffen conceded that widespread German concern over the potential environmental effects of fracking was a serious obstacle to those plans. “Wherever there are...