In 2022, Dutch gas consumption will fall to the lowest amount in fifty years. It reports that Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on new figures. In total, Dutch households and companies consumed 31 billion cubic meters of gas. That is a quarter less than in the previous year.
Natural gas consumption in Dutch households was 25 percent lower. Almost half of that decrease is due to the relatively warm weather in 2022, according to Statistics Netherlands. If the weather had been a normal year, natural gas consumption would have been 15 percent lower. This is mainly due to the high gas prices.
The large companies in the petroleum and chemical industry also consumed a quarter less gas than in 2021. In the greenhouse horticulture sector, where gas engines are often used to produce their own electricity, gas consumption even fell by 30 percent. Power stations needed 12 percent less gas in 2022 than in the previous year.
The low gas consumption ensured that the Netherlands’ gas reserves could grow by more than 4 billion cubic metres. By the end of 2022, three-quarters of all gas storage facilities had been filled. Thanks to the commissioning of the LNG terminal at Eemshaven, twice as much liquefied natural gas (LNG) was imported as in 2021, accounting for a total of one third of total imports. Both the import and export of non-liquefied gas were lower in 2022 than in previous years.