Page 11 - EurOil Week 38 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

Wintershall Dea brushes off legal

threat from green group

GERMANY GERMAN gas company Wintershall Dea has Wintershall Dea is targeting net-zero Scope 1
brushed off a legal threat from environmental and 2 emissions by 2030, although it has not set
The NGO has also group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) over its cli- a goal for Scope 3 emissions resulting from the
taken aim at Nord mate impact, stating that the NGO’s cease-and- use of its products. Rather than pursue growth in
Stream 2. desist order has no validity. renewables, the company has largely focused on
DUH and Greenpeace threatened Win- hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS)
tershall Dea and German car manufacturers as solutions to climate change, while insisting
Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler’s Mercedes- that natural gas should remain a pillar of the
Benz with legal action if they did not step up energy transition.
efforts to address climate change. They called “Renewable energies alone will not be able to
on the gas company to stop exploring for oil and fully cover the world’s growing energy demand
gas by 2026, while demanding that the automak- in the foreseeable future. This challenge can be
ers stop selling cars with internal combustion overcome only by a clever mix of renewables
engines by the end of the decade. The NGOs and low-carbon energies,” Mehren said. “Win-
gave the companies three weeks to response to tershall Dea makes an important contribution
the demands. to ensuring a reliable and secure energy supply
“Wintershall Dea does not see that DUH has in Europe – at various levels: with natural gas,
a right to such a declaration. A response to that climate-friendly production and ambitious cli-
effect was sent to the DUH today,” the gas firm mate targets.”
said in a statement on September 20. DUH is also a strong opponent of Nord
The NGOs had claimed they were looking Stream 2. It demanded a review of the German
to ensure that Wintershall Dea and the other construction and operating permits granted to
companies were complying with the goals of the the project, although it was informed by regu-
Paris Agreement as well as Germany’s national lators that its request had been denied on Sep-
climate targets. Environmentalists have ratch- tember 16. It has responded by filing another
eted up pressure on oil and gas companies over objection.
their climate credentials in the courts, with some The NGO estimates that Nord Stream 2 alone
measure of success. A Dutch court ruled in May will account for 60% of Germany’s CO2 budget
that Royal Dutch Shell had to deepen planned by 2045. It has also dismissed that the pipeline
cuts to its emissions, although the Anglo-Dutch could one day supply green hydrogen to the
major has appealed against the decision. country, stating that there are no reliable studies
“Wintershall Dea does not have any refineries into the transport of hydrogen via the pipeline,
or service stations. As Europe’s leading independ- and noting that Russia is more interested in using
ent natural gas producer, Wintershall Dea supports the project to funnel gas-based blue hydrogen to
the CO2 emission targets the EU has set,” CEO Europe.
Mario Mehren said in a statement. “We contribute “We will continue to exhaust all legal means
to more climate protection with our natural gas by to prevent the largest fossil fuel project in Europe
replacing coal-fired power generation with more from going into operation,” DUH’s national
climate-friendly natural gas and enabling produc- director, Sascha Muller-Kraenner, said in a state-
tion of hydrogen from natural gas.” ment on September 16. ™

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