Dutch court rules against halt in gas extraction at Groningen

The Dutch Council of State has rejected a request for a complete halt on production at the Groningen natural gas field in a preliminary ruling announced on Tuesday.

The hearing was organised after two parties appealed the Dutch government’s December 2014 decision to cut annual production in 2015 from 42.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) to 39.4bcm.

The parties said the interim measures were insufficient and called for a complete halt on production until further safety tests were performed.

In total, 42 groups appealed the Dutch government’s decision, which they believe does not go far enough in addressing public safety fears around earth tremors caused by the extraction process.

A hearing to deal with these appeals will be held later in 2015, but the two parties mentioned demanded a preliminary ruling as a matter of urgency.

Groningen low-calorific gas (L-gas) is used to supply households, small buildings and light industry, primarily within the Netherlands.

Dutch incumbent GasTerra is also obliged to supply L-gas to Germany, Belgium and France under long-term supply deals. A large proportion of those volumes are not directly sourced from Groningen, but converted from high-calorific gas (H-gas) prior to cross-border delivery.

A recent analysis by ICIS demonstrated that the Groningen field operator could increase production in the coming months and remain below the government cap, due to low production in March (see ESGM 13 April 2015). Ben Samuel