Dutch, Germany to jointly drill for gas in North Sea

• Controversial plan to drill gas 10 nautical miles offshore on Dutch-German border.
• Russia’s Gazprom Stated, that it was halting all gas supplies to the Netherlands.
• Netherland to cut Russian gas and oil supplies by the end of the year.

The Netherlands and Germany will jointly drill for a new North Sea gas field, the Dutch government announced on Wednesday, a day after Russia cut gas supplies to the country.

According to the statement, Deputy Minister of Mining Hans Vijlbrief “issued permits for the Dutch part today,” and “an accelerated procedure for the required permits is underway” in Germany.

“The cabinet supports gas extraction in the North Sea in order, for example, to have sufficient gas to heat our houses,” the economics and climate ministry said.

The controversial plan to drill for gas 10 nautical miles (19 kilometres, 11 miles) offshore on the Dutch-German border is not new, but has taken on a new urgency since Russia’s Gazprom announced Tuesday it was halting all gas supplies to the Netherlands.

This came after Dutch energy firm GasTerra refused to pay in rubles following the Russian military offensive in Ukraine.

Read more: Russia extends gas cutbacks to Europe and halts contracts with the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany

The German state of Lower Saxony a year ago decided not to issue permits for the drilling near the eco-sensitive islands of Schiermonnikoog and Borkum and Dutch environmental groups still have concerns.

However, Lower Saxony “is now making a different decision because of the war in Ukraine”, the Dutch ministry said.

The first gas from the platform — to be powered by a nearby German wind farm — is expected to be extracted by 2024, it added.

The ministry did not give estimated numbers on extraction, but previous Dutch government figures said smaller gas fields in the Netherlands could produce 232-335 billion cubic meters of gas “of which around 60 percent is at sea” between 2018 and 2050.

The Netherlands announced in April it aimed to cut Russian gas and oil supplies by the end of the year.

Russian gas amounted to around 15 percent of its total supply.

Germany however is hugely reliant on Russian energy.

Europe’s largest economy is racing to wean itself off Russian energy and has already phased out Russian coal almost entirely.

The Dutch government stated that a number of measures will be taken to protect the environment, including relocating it away from an oyster project in the area, not discharging drilling fluid into the sea, and filtering water released during gas production.

Read more: Russia could remove Denmark and the Netherlands’ natural gas

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