Hasten Groningen Shutdown, Urges Regulator
The Dutch state mining inspectorate (SodM) has advised the economy and climate ministry, on the basis of public safety, to accelerate the phase-out of gas production from the giant onshore Groningen field.
In March 2018, the ministry committed to a timetable of bringing Groningen gas output down to 12bn m3/yr no later than October 2022 and preferably a year earlier – from the present 21.6bn m3/yr cap – and halting its production completely by 2030. The field produced since 1963 and a decade ago was expected by its Shell/Exxon-owned operator NAM to produce until 2059.
SodM now says July 27 it is “of the opinion that the minister is taking strong steps to move to 12bn m3/yr as quickly as possible” but adds that it has now advised the minister Eric Wiebes to “investigate a number of measures to ensure the phasing-out and, where possible, to accelerate further.”
Among these, it advises that the government “quickly implements tax measures that encourage large consumers to become more sustainable and discourage their use of Groningen gas.” It also urges government to decide now to introduce a ban on Groningen gas for large-scale users in due course, so that they can prepare for it. Groningen has a lower calorific value than typical North Sea or Russian gas.
Dutch national gas grid GTS should “do everything it can to reduce the demand for Groningen gas as quickly as possible by giving them a statutory task and ensure independent supervision,” added SodM.
The inspectorate says it is providing this advice as 5,000 buildings in the region do not meet the safety standard and must therefore qualify for reinforcement measures. It said that 1,900 of these – the most risky – should be inspected and reinforced as quickly as possible.
More than 600 buildings have now been strengthened, said SodM’s chief inspector Theodor Kockelkoren: "The current reinforcement program is based on safety risks that are based on a continuous extraction of 50bn m3/yr [the level of production pre-2014] which the ministry has already more than halved. The minister has presented a plan for completion to zero. That means the risks are already much smaller and that they will become smaller and smaller over time, so the number of buildings that need to be strengthened will decrease, but the pace at which reinforcement is increased must be significantly increased.”