Locals outraged

Attersee: Billion-dollar company wants to drill for gas

Lichtenberg offers a fantastic view over Lake Attersee. Drilling work is due to start here in the fall.(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

Environmentalists and locals are outraged: after Molln, the Australian company ADX now also wants to drill for gas in southern Upper Austria. Half a billion cubic meters of natural gas are thought to be located right next to the Lichtenberg observation tower and near Lake Attersee.

A week ago on Saturday morning, test drilling for fossil gas began in Molln in the Kirchdorf district in the vicinity of the Kalkalpen National Park, which has been opposed by environmentalists. It may not be the only search for natural gas by ADX Vie GmbH - a subsidiary of the Australian-listed exploration company ADX Energy - in Upper Austria this year. In the fourth quarter, the start of a test drilling in the municipality of St. Georgen im Attergau is possible.

The drilling site in Molln, where work began a week ago. 24 billion cubic meters of gas are suspected here.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

The Montanbehörde West in the Ministry of Finance had already approved an exploration well near St. Georgen in the fall of 2023, and the decision of the nature conservation department of the province of Upper Austria had also been issued, ADX Energy confirmed. All agreements with the relevant landowners have also been "signed and sealed, meaning that all requirements for the Lichtenberg well have already been met", the company confirmed in a "Profil" report. ADX Energy had already announced this in a mandatory announcement to the stock exchange on December 4, 2023.

The agreements with the relevant landowners have been signed and sealed, meaning that all requirements for the Lichtenberg well have already been met.

Ein Verterter von ADX Energy

Drilling could therefore begin in the fourth quarter, but there is also a second option: the Irrsdorf drilling site in the municipality of Straßwalchen in Salzburg's Flachgau region. However, the approvals here are not yet as advanced as in St. Georgen. A final decision for one of the two sites has not yet been made, it was added.

The suspected gas deposit at the Lichtenberg drilling point is in any case significantly smaller than in Molln. The Austrian-Australian company assumes 24 billion cubic meters of natural gas there and around half a billion at St. Georgen.