The Senate of the Netherlands decided to finally close the Groningen gas field — one of the largest in Europe. This is reported by Reuters.
Earlier, the countryʼs government promised not to resume gas production due to the risk of an earthquake in the province of Groningen.
Now the Shell and ExxonMobil concerns, which manage the operating company of the field in Groningen, have turned to the Court of Arbitration, which will decide whether the Dutch government should pay the concerns compensation for losses.
The development of one of the largest gas fields in Europe was stopped in October 2023, but 11 wells remained open in case of a "severe winter and due to an uncertain international situation" related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The decision to stop gas production in the field was made, in particular, because of the regular earthquakes occurring in the region. The first small tremors in Groningen were recorded in 1986, since then there have been hundreds. Although most cannot be detected by instruments, a 3.6-magnitude earthquake struck the region in 2012, prompting thousands of property damage lawsuits blamed on gas extraction.