Germany is asking for more gas – this news causes alarm in the Netherlands. There are already earthquakes there because of the mining in Groningen.
The Hague – It’s actually good business for the Netherlands: The Federal Republic demands more gas from the Benelux countries. Due to ongoing contractual obligations, the country now has to increase production from the Groningen field – but there is a big problem. The increase in capacity also increases the risk of earthquakes in the north of the country.
It was news that caused unrest in the Netherlands: In mid-January 2022, the then Economics Minister Stef Blok informed Parliament in a letter that up to 7.6 billion cubic meters of gas would have to be pumped from Groningen this year and not as planned on March 3 ,9. One reason is that the construction of a nitrogen factory has been delayed. Foreign gas is to be processed there for domestic consumption.
Netherlands has to almost double gas production in Groningen despite the risk of an earthquake
In addition, the demand from Germany for the low-calorific Groninger gas is higher – in this financial year the demand is around 1.1 billion cubic meters. The Dutch will probably have to almost double gas production in Groningen despite the risk of earthquakes. The Dutch government is worrying because it has committed to phasing out what was once the world’s largest gas field by 2022.
“This comes because energy-saving measures had less of an impact than expected,” Blok wrote to Parliament. In December 2021 he wrote to his German counterpart Robert Habeck, who is struggling with the high gas prices, that he was “seriously worried” about the development. He also asked him to check whether “the effects of the higher gas consumption should be kept to a minimum”.
The green Federal Ministry of Economics did not want to comment on this. “I can neither confirm nor deny any inquiries from the Dutch minister to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection,” a spokeswoman for Robert Habeck replied to a request from the news magazine Spiegel. Security of supply in Germany is “continued to be guaranteed”.
The Netherlands cannot simply stop supplying gas to Germany
The situation is tricky for the government in The Hague, because it cannot simply stop the subsidies. “The Ministry’s hands are really tied. It’s not in our hands,” a spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs told Politico. “We can’t just literally cut the pipes.”
The gas trader Gasterra, which markets the gas from Groningen, also has no leeway. The government cannot intervene easily because the company is only half-owned by the state. The American oil giant ExxonMobil and the British-Dutch group Shell, which has to significantly reduce its CO2 emissions by 2030, each own 25 percent.
A Gasterra spokesman told Politico: “The Dutch government has no contractual obligations with Germany, but we have some with various customers. We are obliged to fulfill these obligations.” Meanwhile, gas prices in Germany continue to rise. And if cheap gas suppliers can no longer deliver, thousands of households fall back into the more expensive basic supply. (tvd/dpa)
