Europe’s Huge, Unusable Gas Field

Earthquake risks mean the Dutch are unwilling to plug the Russia-related energy shortfall

- Ben Purvis and Cristina Lindblad

Beneath the windmill-dotted marshlands of the Netherlands lies Europe’s largest natural gas reserve. The sprawling Groningen field has enough untapped capacity to replace, as soon as this winter, much of the fuel Germany once imported from Russia.

Instead the field is in the process of shutting down, and the Netherlands is rebuffing calls to pump more, even as Europe braces for perhaps its toughest winter since World War II. The reason: Drilling has led to repeated earthquakes, and Dutch officials are loath to risk a backlash from residents by breaking promises.

Groningen has been a mainstay of Europe’s gas supplies since 1963. Even after a half-century, there’s still about 450  billion cubic meters of extractable gas in reserve—worth around $1 trillion. More critical, there’s room to extract around 50 billion cubic meters per year more than is flowing at present, according to Shell Plc, one of the two major partners involved in operating it.

Locals, though, say the continent needs to look elsewhere. Wilnur Hollaar, 50, who’s lived in Groningen for almost two decades, is still seething over the way officials ignored his concerns. “When I bought this house in 2004, it was a palace,” Hollaar says of his home, which was built in 1926 and features stained-glass windows and detailed stonework. But like thousands of homes in the area, it’s been damaged by quakes; it’s full of cracks and the facade is sinking. “My house has turned into a ruin,” he says.