The Groningen gas field will be turned off on October 1 of this year, and permanently close a year later, State Secretary for the Extractive Industries, Hans Vijlbrief, confirmed Friday.
Wells at the massive field will remain operational for an additional year in case of an extremely cold winter, but then the infrastructure will be dismantled, the official said.
Large-scale gas extraction in the province has caused numerous tremors leaving thousands of residents with damaged homes and health issues. It is widely believed the earthquakes are the result of the ground settling following the decades of drilling.
The future of the Groningen gas field has taken on new importance, however, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent the energy prices through the roof, leading a few European politicians to demand not only that the gas extraction should continue, but also that drilling should be intensified.
The field, operated by a joint venture of Shell and Exxon Mobil still holds massive reserves of natural gas, but the government has been winding down production in recent years. Local residents, who suffered millions of euros in damage to their homes over the years, have lobbied hard for the end to gas extraction to ensure that the main cause of the earthquakes disappears. So far they have received only a trickle of compensation.
Earlier this year, a parliamentary commission accused the Dutch state and Shell and ExxonMobil of having ignored the long-term risks and adverse effects of drilling on people’s lives.
The commission said large-scale extraction has left thousands of residents with damaged homes and health issues. Tremors in the Groningen field, which opened in 1963, began in the 1980s as the soft local clay and sandstone began to shift. According to the parliamentary commission, gas drilling activities in the northern Netherlands have resulted in 1,594 earthquakes, sending cracks through 85,000 family homes, farms, businesses and architectural landmarks.
After initially ignoring the problem, the government reduced the amount of gas pumped from Groningen to minimize seismic risks in the region. Groningen is Europe’s largest natural gas field, with reserves that could replace the pipeline gas that Russia no longer pumps westwards. The commission recommended, however, that the authorities and businesses should not put profits before people.
The parliamentary commission also called on the government to simplify the processing of claims for damage and ensure sufficient funds are available for compensation.
