The German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) have now published their joint positions on „Environmentally Compatible Hydraulic Fracturing“ in the so-called „Hanover Declaration“.

The three institutions were aided in drawing their conclusions for the attached „Hanover Declaration“, by the „Environmentally Compatible Hydraulic Fracturing“ conference that took place on June 24th and 25th, 2013, in the Hanover GeoCentre. The conference accommodated exchanges between over 200 experts from the fields of politics, economics and science on the subject of shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

BGR, GFZ and UFZ have summarised the most significant points from the conference, as follows:

1. Recovery of shale gas could contribute to a stabilisation of resources caused by dwindling indigenous natural gas extraction.

2. It is required that the application of fracking technology for shale gas extraction in Germany uses environmentally-friendly procedures. The protection of drinking water is a top priority.

3. To assess whether fracking can be conducted in an environmentally-friendly manner, proposed procedures should be first checked against local geological conditions in each individual case, and accompanied by appropriate monitoring measures.

4. The operation and development of technology for shale gas extraction in Germany requires a transparent and step-by-step approach.

The conference participants were called upon to comment on a draft version of the declaration’s contents, and to thereby contribute to the final version. The „Hanover Declaration“ and the comments submitted by the conference participants are now available for inspection and download on the BGR homepage.

Download the draft with comments attached (in German)
Download the final version (in German)

The text is adopted from GFZ homepage.