Europe / Caspian / CIS
Country profile: Germany
Location: | Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark |
Climate: | temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind |
Terrain: | lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south |
Size: | 357021 sq. km total (Land area: 349223 sq. km Water area: 7798 sq.km) |
Population: | 82,369,548 (July 2008 est.) |
Languages: | German |
Government: | federal republic |
Capital city: | Berlin |
Legal system: | civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction |
Currency: | euro (EUR) |
Licensing: |
Country profile
Germany has one of the largest economies in the world, with a 2005 nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.8 trillion. In recent years, economic growth has resumed, after GDP contracted by 0.2 percent in 2003. However, high unemployment and sluggish domestic demand continue to dampen economic growth. Owning to its large economy, Germany is one of the world’s largest energy consumers. In 2004, the country consumed 14.7 quadrillion British Thermal Units (Btu) of total energy, the fifth-largest amount in the world.
Besides coal, Germany does not possess any sizable hydrocarbon reserves, so the country must rely upon imports to meet the majority of its energy needs. The lack of domestic hydrocarbon resources has led Germany to become a world leader in the development of renewable energy technologies, with the country becoming the world’s largest producer of biodiesel and generator of electricity from wind.
As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation, Germany is a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR).
The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.
Energy production and consumption
Oil | Gas | |
Production: | 141,700 bbl/day (2005) | 19 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Consumption: | 2 million bbl/day (2005 est.) | 96 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Exports: | 518,700 bbl/day (2004) | 9 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Imports: | 2 million bbl/day (2004) | 86 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Reserves: | 367 million bbl (1 January 2006 est.) | 246 billion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
Major fields: |
Germany - recent news
29 May 23 |
Germany: RWE strengthens its position in the German offshore wind market by becoming sole owner of 1.6-GW Nordseecluster RWE is strengthening its position in the German offshore market. The company has become the sole owner of a 1.6-gigawatt (GW) cluster of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea. The Nordseecluster, consisting of four sites located north of the island of Juist, was formerly co-developed with Canadian company Northland Power, which has now sold its 49% shareholding in the cluster to RWE. |
25 May 23 |
Germany: Neptune Energy starts gas production at Adorf Z17 well, Germany Neptune Energy has announced first production from its operated Adorf Z17 gas well in the municipality of Georgsdorf, north western Germany. The Z17 well - in the Carboniferous formation - is expected to increase Neptune’s production from the Adorf licence by 1,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day to around 6,300 boepd. |
22 May 23 |
Germany: Fugro and Fraunhofer IWES secure survey for BSH’s German EEZ wind farm sites Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency has awarded Fugro a geophysical survey contract for two offshore wind farm sites in the German exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the North Sea. |
24 Apr 23 |
Germany: VINCI wins a contract to design, build and install three wind-farm energy converter platforms in the North Sea The consortium made up of Dragados Offshore – a subsidiary of Cobra IS – and Siemens Energy has been awarded by TenneT (the Dutch-German transmission system operator) a contract to design, build and install the three offshore windfarm energy converter platforms in the North Sea. |
20 Apr 23 |
Germany: RWE and Northland Power sign Hellenic Cables as preferred supplier for the Nordseecluster The Nordseecluster of RWE (51%) and Northland Power (49%) is making further progress. The companies have taken Hellenic Cables S.A. on board as the preferred supplier for their up to 1.6-gigawatt (GW) cluster consisting of four offshore wind farm sites in the German North Sea. |
Germany - more news
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