The Netherlands has the largest natural gas reserves in the European Union. A few years ago, she voluntarily gave it up for security reasons. Meanwhile, Russia has shown that it is not a reliable trading partner and has led to a gas crisis on the European continent. Is the Netherlands ready to expand natural gas production from the Groningen fields?
There are situations when there is no unambiguously right decision, and someone will always be the loser. In such an unenviable position are the Netherlands, which has huge gas reserves, thanks to which this small country, and in fact the whole of Europe, was able to “buy” many months of peace from Russian blackmail and price cuts. On the other hand, its mining in the province of Groningen in the north of the country caused the collapse of the earth in this region. There were also increasingly strong and frequent earthquakes that destroyed many houses. In some places, there are days when the ground shakes several times, according to money.pl.
The end of the operation is even accelerated
Mindful of safety, the Dutch in 2019 decided to completely stop production before the end of this year. Initially, the end of operation was planned for 2030, but for safety reasons this period was reduced.
When this decision was made, no one knew that Russia would ruthlessly blackmail Western buyers by turning on the tap, which would raise prices so much that large industrial enterprises would reduce production and soar the prices of hundreds of consumer goods. Azory Group and Anwil’s decision last week to cut production is a foretaste of what will happen when cheap gas runs out.
The Netherlands sleeps on gas
In this situation, the Netherlands began to consider expanding production from Groningen. This is the last point: all the infrastructure is in place, everything works, so expanding your business will not be associated with additional costs. Once mining is stopped, it will be very expensive to restart it. And to illustrate what kind of natural gas deposits we are talking about: Dutch deposits account for 0.5 percent. In comparison, Norwegians, ranked 17th on this list, have 1% of the world’s resources. resources, the United States is fourth - 5 percent, and Russia, which is in first place in this ranking - 24 percent. - calculates money.pl based on worldometers.info data. The deposits in Groningen amount to 450 billion cubic meters. This is as much as the whole of Europe imported from Russia over the past three years.
Safety is paramount, but the Dutch government responds and explains that nothing has changed. In June, a statement was released that the Netherlands was preparing for a winter without Russian gas. As part of the adopted strategy, the Dutch intend, in particular, to ration gas, but further production in Groningen is considered only as a last resort. The Dutch rulers are not convinced by energy security experts that in these difficult and unpredictable times, it was the Dutch who could provide Europe with gas and make the transformation to become independent of Russian supplies (in a planned but not so fast way) in a planned way.
Source: Wprost
