2023-06-23 19:57:28
Despite global concerns about energy supplies sparked by the war in Ukraine, the Netherlands announced on Friday June 23 that it would end gas extraction in Europe’s largest field on October 1. Residents of the huge extraction site in the province of Groningen complained of repeated earthquakes, the cause of which is attributed to the intensive exploitation of the soil, vacuum pockets forming during the extraction of gas from this deposit exploited since 1963.
“We are really closing the floodgates”said the state secretary for mines, Hans Vijlbrief. “The problems of the inhabitants of Groningen have not yet been resolved and unfortunately the earthquakes should last for several years but the source of their misfortune will be closed from October”he added in a press release.
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Initially, in 2018, the Netherlands announced that it wanted to close the operating site in 2030, due to earthquakes and the protest of some local residents. Even though gas extraction in the region has been nearly wiped out in recent years, the Dutch government has kept the site operational due to global energy uncertainties largely caused by the invasion of Ukraine by the Russia in February 2022.
Finally, the government of Mark Rutte decided on Friday during a council of ministers to completely end production from October 1.
“Uncertain international situation”
Due to “uncertain international situation” and in the event of an extremely cold winter, the last eleven gas extraction units from the Groningen field must however remain operational for an additional year, before a definitive closure in October 2024, the government announced.
Shell Netherlands and ExxonMobil have an equal stake in NAM, the company responsible for extracting gas from Groningen since the early 1960s. In March, outgoing Shell Netherlands director Marjan van Loon said that the Dutch government was to close the gas field this year.
Last February, a report by a parliamentary committee incriminated the Dutch government for having failed in its management of the gas extraction file in the Groningen region. The commission of inquiry notes that the government has a moral obligation to remedy the situation in Groningen, where many houses have suffered considerable damage.
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