Germany has given its backing to an agreement with the Netherlands to support gas extraction from a cross-border reservoir in the North Sea, as Germany seeks to boost domestic gas production following the war in Ukraine and its decision to stop importing Russian gas. The Dutch energy company One-Dyas is leading the project and estimates it could extract between 4.5 and 13 bcm of gas over several years from the "N05-A field."
However, gas extraction on the German side still requires several layers of regulatory approval, and the timeline for obtaining them remains unclear. While the Netherlands already has the necessary legal framework in place, Germany’s Lower Saxony region, where the reservoir is located, will independently decide whether to approve specific applications, as the bilateral agreement does not itself authorize production. The project, previously suspended, still faces legal action from environmental groups over potential risks to the UNESCO-listed Wadden Sea.
Germany’s gas production was divided by around a factor 3 over 2010-2024, from 15 bcm to 5 bcm in 2024, corresponding to only 6% of the demand.