Dutch court to rule on safety of Groningen gas extraction

A court hearing to decide whether or not it is safe to continue natural gas production from the giant Groningen field in the Netherlands will begin on 1 April.

The Council of State – the Netherlands’ highest general administrative court – told ICIS on Thursday that the April hearing has been organised after two parties strongly appealed the Dutch government’s December 2014 decision to cut annual production in 2015 from 42.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) to 39.4bcm.

In total, 42 parties appealed the decision which they believe does not go far enough in addressing public safety fears surrounding the production of gas from Groningen. A hearing to deal with these appeals will be held later in 2015, but two parties have demanded a preliminary ruling as a matter of urgency.

This hearing is due to begin on 1 April, but it is expected to take a further two weeks to reach a verdict. If the court rules that it is too dangerous to continue gas extraction from Groningen, it has the power to order the Dutch government to halt production entirely from the field.

The latest official government position on Groningen production is that output will be capped at 16.5bcm for the first half of 2015, while the economy minister considers revising the annual cap down further to 35bcm.

Public safety concerns have risen in recent years, following an increase in the frequency of earth tremors resulting from gas extraction from the Groningen field. This in turn has forced the government to revise down production caps on a number of occasions.

The Dutch TTF Summer ‘15 contract climbed more than €0.70/MWh day on day. Jake Horslen