The Netherlands has announced the permanent closure of the Groningen gas field

The Netherlands has announced the permanent closure of the Groningen gas field

The Dutch government announced on April 18 that from April 19, the Groningen gas field in the northern Netherlands will be permanently closed, and the Groningen gas field will officially withdraw from the historical stage.

According to the announcement issued by the Dutch government on the same day, after the Dutch Parliament passed the relevant bill to close the Groningen gas field, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands signed the bill on April 17. In accordance with legal procedures, the bill officially entered into force on April 19, and the Groningen gas field will be permanently closed.

The announcement said that on April 19, the Dutch government will hold a ceremony at the original site of the discovery of Groningen gas field in 1959, in the presence of local residents to symbolically close the gas field.

As one of the largest gas fields in Europe, Groningen gas field was discovered in 1959, natural gas production began in 1963, and production peaked in 1976. In 2013, due to frequent earthquakes and protests by local residents, production of the gas field began to decline, and production was gradually terminated in 2018.

Before the permanent closure on April 19, all the mining bases of Groningen gas field have stopped gas production since October last year, but the Dutch government said at that time that due to the unknown international situation, once the Netherlands gas supply shortage, in very special circumstances, it does not rule out the restart of Groningen gas field gas production.

In its 65-year history, Groningen has been a huge source of money for the Dutch government and the oil and gas giants that operate it, but it has had a "catastrophic" impact on Groningen. In February last year, the Dutch parliament said in a nearly 2,000-page investigation report that from 1959 to 2018, the exploitation of the Groningen gas field caused nearly 1,600 earthquakes, causing about 85,000 houses in the area to be damaged and nearly 12,000 homes to be unsafe.

In addition, the report criticized the Dutch government and oil and gas giants for "structural and systematic" disregard for the interests of the people, only exploiting natural gas to make money, leaving Groningen residents to swallow the bitter fruit, and oil and gas giants also tried to "systematic" counterclaims to set limits on residents' claims.

After the release of the report, the Dutch government announced a "rectification" plan, promising to invest 22.2 billion euros in Groningen over the next 30 years (defined by the Dutch government as "a generation"), including reducing the threshold for residents' claims, supporting Groningen to develop "green energy" such as hydrogen energy and offshore wind power, and introducing life and health industries. To make up for the suffering and loss suffered by the inhabitants of Groningen.