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In the dispute over gas extraction off the North Sea island of Borkum, the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony (OVG) in L\u00fcneburg has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Environmental Action Germany (DUH).<\/p>\n
This means that the authorization granted by the Lower Saxony State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) to the Dutch energy company One-Dyas in August 2024 remains valid.<\/p>\n
The environmental organization had argued that the mining authorization was unlawful from an economic and environmental policy perspective and had brought the case to court.<\/p>\n
Natural gas extraction in the North Sea from a cross-border gas field on Dutch and German territory, around 20 kilometres off Borkum, has been highly controversial for years.<\/p>\n
The environmentalists criticized that the licensing authority had not sufficiently taken into account the impact of drilling and gas extraction on the Dutch side during the German licensing procedure.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs also argued that the potential consequences of natural gas extraction on the neighbouring sensitive habitat of the Wadden Sea had not been adequately assessed.<\/p>\n
In a statement explaining the grounds for its ruling, the Higher Administrative Court stated that while it recognized the risk of seabed subsidence and earthquakes resulting from natural gas extraction, marine nature conservation and protected areas would not be significantly impaired as a result.<\/p>\n
Further legal action in the Netherlands<\/strong><\/p>\n Following the ruling, Environmental Action Germany announced it would continue to take action against offshore natural gas extraction.<\/p>\n “Today\u2019s decision confirms that we urgently need comprehensive legislation banning oil and gas drilling in and beneath marine protected areas,” DUH Federal Executive Director Sascha M\u00fcller-Kraenner said in a statement.<\/p>\n Until then, the Environmental Action group intends to continue its legal action against gas drilling in the Netherlands – as court proceedings are still ongoing there too.<\/p>\n “I am convinced that what we did was correct,” a legal adviser to the LBEG in court. They had assessed the impact of the drilling project on German territory, but this had not been to such an extent that the project would have been ineligible for approval.<\/p>\n The court ruling on the German authorization is significant, as it is necessary for cross-border gas extraction from deep-sea deposits.<\/p>\n The State Mining Authority had granted One-Dyas an authorization, valid for 18 years, for drilling and gas extraction beneath the German seabed.<\/p>\n One-Dyas has been drilling for gas on the Dutch side since March 2025. On the German side, this has not yet happened, a spokesman for the LBEG said.<\/p>\n The natural gas platform off Borkum is expected to produce around 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year during normal operations \u2013 according to One-Dyas, this is expected to be ready in the fourth quarter of this year, “before the start of winter.\u201d<\/p>\n This volume corresponds to 2.5% of Germany\u2019s gas demand. But One-Dyas has its sights set on further fields in the vicinity. The total volume of the so-called GEMS area is estimated at 50 billion cubic metres.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n