NAM Shuts in Part of Groningen Field
Dutch gas producer NAM, which operates the earthquake-hit Groningen field, said it halted gas production from the Loppersum clusters that form part of the field on February 2 at the request of the economy minister Eric Wiebes.
The minister requested NAM to shut down the Loppersum clusters according the prior advice of the state supervision of mines (SSM), also known by its Dutch acronym SodM.
A suggestion to also shut down the Eemskanaal cluster was not part of the formal request of the minister, said a ministry spokesman, but is an option brought up by NAM and will be examined by the SSM.
NAM said that, two days after the January 8 3.4 magnitude earthquake at Zeerijp in the Groningen region, that SSM suggested for five Loppersum clusters (Ten Post, Overschild, De Paauwen, 't Zandt and Leermens) to be shut in. NAM said the advice was formally expressed by SSM February 1 and that national gas transmission operator Gasunie Transport Services (GTS) had said it would not impact security of supply in this gas year (starting October 1 2017).
"The minister then instructed NAM to stop these clusters immediately," NAM's statement noted.
NGW has asked by how much production has been reduced as a result of the action, but has yet to hear back from the operator. It had been capped at 21.6bn m3/yr during October 2017-September 2018 gas year, but is expecting a ministerial order next month on what its new overall cap will be for that and future years. The SSM has advised a new cap of 12bn m3/yr. NAM is 50-50% owned by Shell and ExxonMobil, each of which sounded cautionary notes about the future of Groningen production and earnings in their 4Q results last week. Groningen field is 60%-owned by NAM, and 40% by state holding EBN.
NAM's graph shows Loppersum fields being shut in on February 2 2018, but not what volume units are being measured in the vertical axis (Graphic credit: NAM)
In other news
Waterland-controlled Nuts Groep's acquisition of Dutch energy retailer De Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij (NLE) has been cleared by the European Commission, the latter said February 5. Nuts Groep is active - through Budget Energie - in the supply of electricity and gas to small customers in the Netherlands and Belgium and announced the planned takeover on January 3 2018 without disclosing a purchase price. NLE and Budget Energie together have 600,000 customers. Waterland is an independent private equity firm.