Netherlands Caps Groningen Gas Production At 30 Bcm in 2015

Dutch Economy Minister Henk Kamp reportedly decided to cap production at the Groningen gas field, Dutch news agency ANP wrote on Monday. Maximum production in the current year should be 30 bcm.  

The cap on the 10th largest gas field in the world will produce less than what said in January 2014, when the Dutch government said that production would be cut to 42.5 bcm in both 2014 and 2015. 

Earlier this year, the country's Safety Board said gas companies, regulators and the government had all failed to take the threat of earthquakes seriously enough.

The Netherlands is the first producer in the European Union, with around 80,780,000,000 m3 of gas produced in 2012, according to the World Factbook. 

In April, a Dutch court issued a preliminary ruling on the requests brought forward by locals, saying it would order a halt to production around the village of Loppersum in the province of Groningen, under certain conditions.

According to an article published by DutchNews.nl on Monday, the most severe earthquake likely to hit Groningen province in the coming years will be 4.5 on the Richter scale, not 5 as earlier forecast. The newspaper reported the evidences of the last report of TNO research institute.