AMSTERDAM, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Netherlands will go ahead
with plans to end gas production at the large Groningen field
next year, the Dutch government said on Friday, despite the
current gas price rally.
Output at Groningen will be cut by more than 50% to 3.9
billion cubic metres (bcm) in the year through October 2022,
which will be the last year of regular production, the
government said in confirmation of preliminary plans.
The Dutch state in 2019 announced output at Groningen would
end by mid-2022 to limit seismic risks in the region, with gas
only to be extracted thereafter in the event of extreme weather
conditions, for which a few sites will remain on stand-by.
To keep these sites operational around 1.5 bcm of gas will
be extracted on a yearly basis, until a main gas storage site
can be switched to the use of imported low-calorific gas instead
of the high-calorific gas Groningen delivers.
The government had earlier said it expected the conversion
of the storage site between 2025 and 2028, but has asked
regulators to see whether this can happen more quickly.
Gas prices in Europe and the UK surged to record highs this
month due to a global shortage, disruptions, repair works and
lack of investments.
But this has not changed the outlook for Groningen, a
government spokesman said.
Several companies operating in the Netherlands, including
large aluminium, zinc and ammonia producers, have said they will
lower production at Dutch facilities due to surging energy
prices.
A main supply of gas for Europe for decades, Groningen's
output hit a peak of 88 bcm in 1976 and was still close to 30
bcm only 5 years ago.
But extraction quickly became problematic in recent years,
as a series of tremors caused by gas production damaged houses
and buildings in the region.
Discovered in 1959, the Groningen field is run by Royal
Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil joint venture NAM.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer. Editing by Jane Merriman)
