Netherlands to end Groningen gas production by October 1

Gas production at the Netherlands' Groningen field will end by October 1, the government said on June 23, as it kept its promise to rapidly cease the already minimal extraction to limit seismic risks in the region.

The field, operated by a joint venture of Shell (SHEL.L) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), still holds massive reserves of natural gas, but production has been almost completely wound down in the past years as tremors related to drilling caused widespread damage and mental anguish, Reuters reports.

Production facilities will be closed permanently in 2024, the government said, but there will be an option to extract limited amounts of gas in extreme circumstances in the coming year.

"If it's very cold and we have problems at a storage we will be able to restart one or more facilities. But the decision is that production will be zero from Oct. 1," junior minister for Mining Hans Vijlbrief told reporters.

Vijlbrief added he had "no doubt" that the facilities would be dismantled after October 2024, as gas imports and the energy transition would ensure there would be sufficient gas for Dutch users by then.

Extraction at what once was one of Europe's largest natural gas fields, was limited to the minimum needed to keep it operational (around 3 billion cubic metres per year) in October last year, with the aim of shutting the field a year later or by 2024 at the latest.

That deadline was the result of an unusually strong earthquake in 2018, which made the government decide to rapidly end all production. A promise it kept despite mounting international pressure to deliver more gas to counter the energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.