2023-10-01 09:03:50
The Netherlands has stopped production from Europe’s largest gas field in the province of Groningen. According to authorities, production in the Groningen field, which has been shaken by earthquakes for years, ended on Sunday. However, eleven boreholes at the site, which was opened in the 1960s, are to be kept open for another year in the event of a “severe winter”. Despite the closure, experts warn that quakes in the region might continue.
The underground gas fields near Groningen in the north of the Netherlands are the largest deposits in Europe. For more than two decades, residents have been complaining regarding earthquakes that are directly attributed to the exploitation of the deposits. Gas production has therefore been reduced in recent years. In 2021, only 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas were produced in Groningen. In previous years it was over 20 billion cubic meters.
Gas production should be stopped completely as early as 2022. In view of the global energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, the government declared last autumn that 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas should be withdrawn once more – the minimum amount necessary to operate the existing sites and infrastructure.
A report by a parliamentary committee of inquiry published in February accused the Dutch authorities of having paid “little attention to the long-term risks” in the successful promotion. The parliamentarians called on the government to act.
The government under Prime Minister Mark Rutte finally decided in June to completely stop production by October 1st. “Due to the uncertain international situation,” it would remain possible to extract gas from the site for another year “in very exceptional situations,” the government explained at the time – for example in “very severe cold” or in the event of a gas shortage. The last eleven boreholes would then be “permanently closed” by October 2024.
The oil giants Shell Netherlands and ExxonMobil have equal shares in the NAM group, which has been responsible for the exploitation of the Groningen gas field since the 1960s. A Shell executive also said in March that the government had to close the field.
According to Shell, a total of around 2.3 billion cubic meters were extracted from the deposit. Between 1963 and 2020, around 429 billion euros were generated from Groningen gas. 85 percent of these profits went into the Dutch treasury.
Although the earthquakes caused severe damage to houses in the area, residents received only minimal compensation, according to the parliamentary report. Those affected are therefore caught in a web of bureaucratic hurdles and bungling.
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