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AMSTERDAM, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The Netherlands will halt
production at Groningen, Europe's largest onshore natural gas
field, by 2022, eight years earlier than initially planned, the
Dutch government said on Tuesday.
Groningen produced nearly 54 billion cubic metres (bcm) of
gas in 2013 before tremors blamed on drilling damaged buildings
and prompted a series of lowered caps on output and protests by
residents and campaigners.
An unusually strong earthquake prompted the government last
year to promise to end production by 2030.
But Economy Minister Eric Wiebes last month signalled the
end could come a lot sooner, citing greater capacity to convert
high calorific imported gas to the low calorific standard of
Groningen gas and a switch by large industrial users to other
sources of energy.
The government said production will drop 40% in the 12
months through October 2020 to 11.8 bcm.
The field is operated by NAM, a joint venture between Royal
Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. Output hit a peak
of 88 bcm in 1976.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by Jason Neely)
