The nitrogen plant that is being built in the Groningen town of Zuidbroek will only become operational “no later than” October 1, 2023, while that would initially be in the summer of 2022. That is what State Secretary for Mining Hans Vijlbrief (D66) wrote on Thursday in a letter to the House of Representatives. The construction of the plant is a condition for stopping gas extraction in Groningen.
The reason for the postponement is a business conflict between the main contractor Air Products (AP) and the main subcontractor Ballast Nedam (BNI). The American AP suddenly canceled the contract with BNI in early January – both accuse each other of causing the delay. BNI would work “really too slowly”, the Air Products director previously told NRC. The Nijmegen company BNI accuses AP of “mismanagement”.
State Secretary Vijlbrief calls the delay “very disappointing” and the actions of AP and BNI “unprofessional”. “It is inconceivable that they let a project of great national importance get so out of hand,” says Vijlbrief. There have been no ‘significant advances’ from the conflict since early December. “The completion of the construction of the nitrogen plant remains a very high priority for me,” writes the State Secretary. He assures the Chamber that the delay in the delivery of the plant will not affect the possibility of closing the Groningen gas field “in 2023 or at the latest in 2024”.
After opening, imported foreign gas, which is also called high-calorific, is mixed with nitrogen in the factory. This makes it low-calorie, just like Groningen gas. The Zuidbroek factory extracts the required nitrogen from the air. About fifteen million households in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France are currently connected to Groningen gas. Converting connections from low-calorific to high-calorific is not easy.
Read also: Why was Ballast Nedam excluded from the construction of the nitrogen plant in Zuidbroek?