FRANKFURT, April 16 (Reuters) - Germany's domestic oil

production fell 5.9% to 1.6 million metric tons in 2023 while

gas output was down 10.4% at 4.3 billion cubic metres (bcm),

industry association BVEG said on Tuesday.

The companies involved in producing what is left of German

gas and oil reserves achieved a turnover of 3 billion euros

($3.19 billion) from their German activities, down from 5

billion euros a year earlier, reflecting lower market prices,

BVEG said.

Production of oil in Germany peaked in the 1960s and gas in

the 1990s. Since then, reserves have fallen, making the country

dependent on imports.

Since supply disruptions linked to Russia's invasion of

Ukraine, Germany has substituted huge volumes of Russian gas

through deals with Norway and has also agreed supply deals with

liquefied natural gas (LNG) traders.

BVEG Managing Director Ludwig Moehring said domestic gas and

oil output should be maximised to reduce dependency on LNG

imports, for which he said carbon emissions were 30% higher.

The industry was investing in carbon management,

hydrogen and geothermal activities to support the energy

transition, he said.

Germany last year sourced about 5.7% of its gas demand and

2.2% of its oil demand from domestic sources.

Germany has 22.7 billion cubic metres of underground gas

storage capacity, which in 2023 equated to 27% of its total

annual consumption and makes it one of the big global players

for storage along with the United States, Russia and Ukraine.

BVEG groups 81 companies including Neptune Energy, Vermilion

Energy, Wintershall Dea and BEB, a

joint venture of ExxonMobil ( XOM ) and Shell.

Key figures from BVEG's annual report as follows:

2023 2022

Indigenous gas production 4.3 bcm 4.8 bcm

Indigenous oil production 1.6 mln T 1.7 mln T

Exploration taxes paid 190 mln € 392 mln €

Estimated domestic gas 34.3 bcm 36.4 bcm

reserves*

Estimated domestic oil 22.8 mln T 23.7 mln T

reserves*

Employees 6,352 6,133

* secure and probable reserves numbers combined

($1 = 0.9417 euros)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Friederike Heine and Ros

Russell)