The Dutch natural gas reserve is getting smaller and smaller. If the amount of gas that is currently being extracted remains the same, the gas will be exhausted in less than nine years.
At the same time, the value of the gas that can still be extracted is increasing, to 71 billion euros at the end of last year. This is due to the sharply increased gas price, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. At the end of 2008, the value of Dutch gas reserves, which were then much larger, peaked at 216 billion. The reserves were only worth 16 billion euros in 2021.
The government benefits from the increased gas price. Gas revenues for the government amounted to 15.7 billion last year, or 1.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Netherlands.
At the end of 2022, there were still 142 billion cubic meters of ‘socially’ extractable gas in the Dutch soil. A much larger amount of gas in the Groningen field, more than 400 billion cubic meters, is no longer extracted. The tap there will be closed in October, The Hague has promised.
pilot light
Last year, only one fifth of the gas produced in our country came from Groningen. In October 2024, gas extraction from the Groningerveld, the largest in Western Europe, will come to a definitive end. Until then, in case of emergency, a small amount of gas can still be extracted and the extraction is kept there on the pilot light.
Statistics Netherlands points out that the Netherlands cannot immediately dispose of its entire natural gas reserve. There are trade contracts with foreign countries, as a result of which part of the available gas goes across the border. Moreover, gas is not yet being extracted from a number of fields.
North Sea
In addition to the Groningen field, the Netherlands has another 240 gas fields. Half of them are located in the Dutch part of the North Sea. About 78 billion cubic meters of gas can still be extracted there, according to figures from TNO.
Incidentally, gas consumption in our country is at its lowest level in fifty years. Last year, total consumption in the Netherlands was 31.2 billion cubic meters. That is also ten billion cubic meters less than four years ago. The industry in particular made significant savings and households also made a substantial contribution. Although the price is now a lot lower than in August 2022, when record amounts were paid for it, the demand for gas has increased again in recent weeks. This is due to higher demand from Asia and strikes in the gas industry in Australia.