The German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) has recently responded to a study on the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, issued by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) in September, 2012. As well as holding many other roles, BGR serves  as the national geologic survey, and in this role it comments mainly on the geoscientific aspects of the UBA study.

In general, the BGR statement criticizes the lack of geoscientific expertise for the deep underground in the BMU study and documents many instances of inconsistency and subjective argumentation. BGR states that the BMU study failed to outline and appreciate the existing broad knowledge base and the existing modern methods of geoscientific exploration and investigation. They say the BMU study suggests that there are large knowledge gaps on deep underground geology. This allegation of missing data on regional assessments is not in accordance with the facts, emphasize the BGR geoscientists.

In its conclusion, BGR states that the BMU study essentially acknowledges that exploration and production of non-conventional natural gas is possible in an environmentally safe way. BGR believes this is consistent with the results of “Risk study Fracking”, a report issued as part of the ‘Information and Dialogue Initiative’ of ExxonMobil Germany. BGR say this is also in accordance with the quintessence of a recent BGR study on unconventional gas in Germany; from a geoscientific point of view, environmentally sustainable application of the technology is possible, as long as the law is observed, the necessary technical measures are taken, and local baseline studies and pilot surveys are carried out. They say hydraulic fracturing is compatible with the protection of freshwater reservoirs.