2023-08-30 22:05:25
Dutch natural gas reserves are expected to be exhausted in less than nine years. “If we continue to pump up gas at the current rate and no new natural gas reserves are discovered, then it will be exhausted,” says Peter Hein van Mulligen, chief economist at Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
“That means the end of an era,” he continues.
According to Statistics Netherlands, there was still 142 billion cubic meters of extractable gas in the Dutch soil at the end of last year. The year before this was 181 billion cubic meters and in 2018 more than double: 298 billion cubic meters.
“The size of the Dutch natural gas reserves decreased further in 2022 due to extraction and reduced extractability of the Groningen field,” notes Van Mulligen. Due to earthquakes, it was decided a few years ago to stop gas extraction in Groningen in the long term. Last year, natural gas production in Groningen was less than a fifth of total gas production in the Netherlands.
The cabinet announced earlier this year that the Groningen field will close in October of this year and that the field will close definitively a year later. What will remain of the Dutch natural gas reserves are the smaller gas fields on land and under the North Sea.
Last year, 16.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas was extracted from the Dutch soil.
When Dutch stocks run out, the required fossil fuels will have to be sourced entirely from abroad. The CBS economist points out that the quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from abroad have already increased sharply in recent years. Due to the European sanctions once morest Russia, that country has almost completely lost its main gas supplier. At the moment, a lot of gas comes from Norway and the Middle East.
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