Stop gas extraction in the largest field in the Netherlands due to earthquakes

The Groningen field, Netherlands, will be closed in 2024.Earthquakes linked to gas extraction damaged thousands of buildings.

Article updated on October 4, 2023.

The President of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, he signed Sunday 1 October 2023 the provision that will stop gas extraction of the large Groningen deposit in autumn 2024.Until then, the authorities will keep the 11 extraction wells open, which will only be exploited in the event of a harsh winter, before definitively closing access to the site.The Groningen gas field had been in operation for 60 years, but for the last 20 years residents had complained of earthquakes caused by gas extraction.

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THE Netherlands they decided that they will not continue to exploit a rich deposit of gas near Groningen, operated by Shell and from Exxon Mobil.The prime minister Mark Rutte announced that gas extraction activities will be stopped in 2024, as they cause earthquakes and disrupt the lives of those living in the area.

Not an easy decision in a period in which Europe is doing everything to free ourselves from dependence on Russian gas, whose supply has fallen from 41 percent to 7.5.The deposit in question was described byEconomist as the only potentially suitable one on the European continent to replace the gas supply coming from Russia.

A gas field capable of satisfying 10 percent of European demand

The Groningen deposit it is the largest in Europe and has been active since 1963.Its production, in recent years, has stood at 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year, equal to 10 percent of European consumption.After almost sixty years it still contains 450 billion cubic meters of gas, which today is worth around one trillion dollars.

Shell, one of the two companies involved, said they could be mined 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year more compared to what is being extracted now.An extra flow capable of replacing the 46 billion cubic meters that Germany imported from Russia last year.

Yet, the government of the Netherlands he made it known that the extraction will be progressively slowed down before stopping completely by the end of 2024.If more energy were needed, the option considered by the Dutch would be to extend the life of its nuclear power plants.

Too many earthquakes in the Netherlands due to mining

Groningen has registered its own first small earthquakes in 1986.Since then, there have been hundreds more.While most of these are undetectable except with appropriate instruments, a 3.6 magnitude earthquake struck the province in 2012, resulting in thousands of property damage claims.

At least 127 thousand of the 327 thousand homes in the area have sustained damage in recent years, he writes Bloomberg Businessweek.Since 2012 they have been more than 3,300 buildings demolished.For this reason, starting from 2014, the Dutch government has placed increasingly severe limits on the field and production has fallen from 54 billion cubic meters in 2013 to 4.5 billion cubic meters expected this year.

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said that the Netherlands they should think about it carefully before closing Groningen, but the Dutch government for the time being he has no intention of going back.However, Rutte specified that the field could be used "only in extreme cases, if something were to go wrong".