Published on Oct 1, 2023 at 3:15 p.m
Discussed for a long time, then postponed, the closure of the Groningen deposit was finally implemented. This Sunday, the Netherlands officially stopped natural gas production in this field in the north of the country – the largest in Europe and the field that has made the Netherlands one of the wealthiest states on the old continent.
The Groningen field, discovered in 1959 and exploited since 1963, has yielded around 2,300 billion cubic meters of gas, according to the NAM-Shell-Exxon consortium responsible for the exploitation, but further extraction of the molecule has become increasingly delicate given the repeated earthquakes to which the surrounding population was exposed.
Repeated earthquakes
Caused by the vacuum pockets created during gas production, these have caused great damage and fueled controversies about political responsibility in the Netherlands.
In February 2022, a parliamentary committee report accused Dutch authorities of “paying little attention to the long-term risks” while the extraction proved successful, and claimed that the government had a moral obligation to remedy the situation.
Overall, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the Dutch state has become 417 billion euros richer since the exploitation began. Income that contributed to the generous Dutch social protection system.
In this context, when the war in Ukraine broke out, some political voices were raised in the Netherlands who wanted to continue the production of gas at the site, whose reserves had not yet been exhausted, but the government did not change its position.
Dormant installations
“From October, gas production in the Groningen field will be stopped. “The only reason to consider further funding is if a different security situation arises, for example a lack of gas to heat hospitals,” said a spokesman for Mining Minister Hans Vijlbrief.
The site will finally close in 2024 and then be dismantled. In the meantime, the government is keeping the plants “dormant” and reserves the option to restart them in the event of extreme circumstances.
In Groningen, production had fallen to 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year in October last year (a minimum level to keep the deposit operational). Just five years ago, the deposit produced more than 50 billion cubic meters. This represented a fifth of European production and about 10% of consumption (France is one of the countries supplied by Groningen).
Gas production on the Old Continent is expected to decline rapidly in the coming years. In addition to the Netherlands, it is also retreating in the North Sea, where Norwegian and British reserves are gradually running out. Enough to increase dependence on LNG imports.