Page 15 - EurOil Week 42 2022

EurOil POLICY EurOil

Dutch PM rules out policy change at

Groningen

NETHERLANDS DUTCH Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently that Germany had made no request for extra gas
ruled out his country using the giant Groningen from Groningen.
Groningen could flow gas field to ease the European market’s supply “If everything really goes wrong, then you
15-20 bcm per year of scarcity this coming winter, even though it could would have to look at it again. That is not on
gas if the government cover most of the low level of gas that Russia cur- the agenda at the moment as far as we are con-
allowed it. rently delivers to Europe. cerned,” he said while speaking in Berlin on
For a number of years Groningen’s output October 4.
has been restricted because of the risk of causing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was equally
earthquakes. The production limit for the year dismissive, responding to journalists that “the
ending October 1, 2023 is set at only 2.8bn cubic question has been largely answered by the
metres, down from 7.6 bcm in the previous gas Dutch Prime Minister.”
year. It is then due to close altogether. Previously Rutte has said that the field’s pro-
However, operators ExxonMobil and Shell duction would only be increased again if Dutch
have said that production could be raised to as households faced a physical shortage of gas.
much as 20-25 bcm per year. Put in context, Rus- Meanwhile, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden
sian gas deliveries to Europe slumped to a record told a Dutch parliamentary panel investigat-
low of 2.3 bcm in September, or 27.6 bcm on an ing production issues at the field that his com-
annualised basis, and there appears to be little pany ought to have withdrawn from the project
ground for optimism that Gazprom will restore sooner.
any supply. “We had to continually ask what made sense,”
This gas would not only come in handy for as output was steadily lowered to levels that were
the Netherlands but also neighbouring Ger- no longer profitable, the CEO said. “What made
many, whose heavy industry has been hit hard sense for Shell was to quit. In any other country
by the loss of Russian gas shipments via the we would have stopped this operation. But in
Nord Stream 1 pipeline. However, Rutte stressed the Netherlands that was impossible because
to journalists earlier this month that he did not the Netherlands was dependent on Groningen
want to keep the field open for longer. He added gas.” ™

Week 42 20•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P15