Petroleum history:When black gold still came from the heath

The Russia-Ukraine war once again shows the importance of oil as a source of energy. Northern Germany also has oil deposits, it was already being mined in the heath 160 years ago - earlier than in the USA.

by Irene Altenmüller

Significant amounts of crude oil and natural gas are still stored in Germany today, most of them in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. The most important reservoir is in the Wadden Sea:the Mittelplate drilling and production island produces up to one million tons of oil every year. Around 580,000 tons come from fields in Lower Saxony every year.

Oil production in Germany:Less than two percent of domestic demand

With around 1.9 million tons (in 2020), crude oil from Germany still covers less than two percent of the total domestic demand of around 96 million tons of crude oil.

Oil production in Germany has been declining since the 1960s, when up to eight million tons of oil were still being extracted each year. According to the Federal Association for Natural Gas, Oil and Geoenergy (BVEG), Germany's reserves are by no means exhausted. Even if a deposit is considered to be depleted, more than 40 percent of the oil is usually still available, some of which could possibly also be extracted in the future using new technologies.

Germany's oldest oil region:Wietze in the Südheide

Oil production in Germany has a long history, dating back to 1858. At that time, the geologist Konrad Hunäus discovered traces of oil in the small village of Wietze in the southern Heath. One of the world's first oil wells follows - months before the first well in the USA.

Around 1900:Oil rush in the southern heath

From 1875, drilling activity was expanded and in 1899 a huge oil field was discovered at a depth of only 140 meters - the beginning of industrial oil production. A veritable oil rush grips the small farming village. Dozens of derricks are erected, hundreds of workers come to Wietze, farmers sell their land and become millionaires. In 1903, Wietze received a train station to be able to transport the oil and the "largest oil tank on the continent". In 1905, 32 oil companies were active on site, and in the same year there was almost a catastrophe:a derrick caught fire. Strong winds threaten to spread to nearby oil drums and the main oil fields. But the workers manage to put out the fire.

1963:End of oil production in Wietze

In 1909, the deposits in Wietze reached their production maximum of 113,518 tons - that was almost 80 percent of German oil production at the time. Production continued for several decades, and production only stopped in 1963 - oil from abroad is cheaper. Numerous facilities and buildings remain, some of which have survived to this day. Since 1970, a petroleum museum has been reminiscent of the former oil rush in the farming village of Wietze.

Lower Saxony:Rühle, second largest German oil field

The oil field in Rühle in Lower Saxony, in the middle of the Bourtanger Moor, still supplies considerable quantities. They struck gold there in 1949, and the field is still the largest German oil deposit after Mittelplate. To date, around 35 million tons of oil have been produced, and it is estimated that around 100 million tons are stored there.

Schleswig-Holstein initially mines oil pastel

Almost as early as in Wietze in Lower Saxony, around 1870, oil pastel was mined near Hemmingstedt in today's Schleswig-Holstein. A Dithmar farmer had encountered oily soil on his land. However, liquid oil deposits were not discovered there until much later:in 1935 there was an oil field at a depth of 2,400 meters, which temporarily developed into the third largest in Germany - for the then National Socialist state it was an extremely important source of raw materials with production volumes of over 200,000 tons in the war year 1940.

Mittelplate - Oil under the Wadden Sea

Since 1987, the Mittelplate on the southern edge of the Wadden Sea National Park has pumped around one to two million tons of oil to the surface every year - to the annoyance of the environmental protection associations, who fear damage to the sensitive natural landscape of the Wadden Sea. Since the oil production island was approved in 1985 before the national park was established, it enjoys grandfathering rights. In 2010, the license to produce oil was extended until 2041.

Oil in Hamburg:Reitbrook and Meckelfeld

Hamburg also has its own oil deposits. In Reitbrook, deep below the Vier- und Marschlanden, the "black gold" is stored underground. In 1937, deposits of up to 800 meters were discovered and mining began. In 1940, the production volume reached a high of 350,000 tons per year. Around 2.6 million tons will be extracted from the ground by 2013. Subsequent plans to increase oil production again have not yet been implemented. Other deposits can be found in Meckelfeld and near Sinstorf, which, however, only partially belongs to the city of Hamburg. In several places, the typical horse-head pumps are reminiscent of oil production.

Vorpommern enters the oil business in the 1960s

Oil production in what is now Mecklenburg-West Pomerania begins much later, but has continued since the 1960s to the present day. The largest deposit in the federal state is near Lütow on Usedom, followed by Kirchdorf-Mesekenhagen between Stralsund and Greifswald. In the 1960s, the GDR was heavily dependent on Soviet oil and tried to make itself more independent by having its own production sites. Initially, up to 1,000 tons of oil per day could be extracted in Lütow.

Since the 1990s, however, the deposits have been largely exhausted, with only a few thousand tons flowing each year. However, the extraction company Neptune Energy is planning to significantly increase production in the future.