Oil production has been an integral part of BEB's business activ­ities for decades. With the production of crude oil from its own reser­voirs in the Emsland, the Lüneb­urger Heide, the Upper Rhine Valley and the South German Prealps BEB makes a contri­bution to lessening depen­dence on German crude oil imports. BEB's annual production of some 380,000 tons corre­sponds to 12% of total German oil production.

Northern Germany is a gas country. But gas is not the same as gas. Besides the deposits whose gas can be used directly by the consumers there are reser­voirs whose gases contain hydrogen sulphide and have to undergo extensive treatment before they can be used. To make these rich deposits usable, BEB has constructed one of the largest European gas desul­phur­ization plants in Großenkneten. Here, as in NEAG's Voigtei plant, the whole of the sulphur is removed from the produced gas and is then available as liquid sulphur for a large range of appli­ca­tions. BEB sells about 600,000 tons of sulphur every year, which are used in Germany Europe and overseas in the chemical industry and for the manufacture of fertilizer.