As part of ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH´s information and dialogue process on potential risks and the environmental impact of unconventional gas production, a national scientist panel discussed its draft results with national and international experts during a public conference in Berlin (6.-7. March 2012).

The bottom line of the conference: when professional best practice is followed, environmental damage is largely excluded, and the remaining risks are simply that of any large engineering projects. One of the major conclusions was that the risks from surface installations and procedures (e.g. pad construction, handling of chemicals) should be considered in more detail. Groundwater contamination via the surface pathway, by spills of chemicals or flowback fluids, appears to be the greater risk when compared with the underground pathway (well integrity failure or fluid migration through rock formations above hydraulically fractured reservoirs).

The final recommendations of the expert panel will be delivered at a conference on 25th April in Osnabrück, after consideration by peer-review, the workshop discussions, and after finalization of the remaining work.

All presentations delivered at the conference are online (mostly in German), and additionally an English abstract of each talk is available.