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Netherlands Warns of Energy Crisis ‘Domino Effect’ That Could Consume Whole of Europe

© AFP 2023 / SHAUN CURRYA gas burner of a stove is pictured in London, on July 31, 2008
A gas burner of a stove is pictured in London, on July 31, 2008 - Sputnik International, 1920, 28.06.2022
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European governments are scrambling to fill underground gas storage facilities in time for the heating season after imposing a partial ban on Russian oil, gas and coal supplies. Russia has expressed regret over the situation, pointing out that Europe’s global economic competitiveness would be severely undermined.
Individual European nations achieving gas security by stocking up their underground storage facility reserves to 80 percent or more of their capacity won’t stop an energy crisis across the region unless the bloc collectively reaches this figure, Dutch Energy Minister Rob Jetten has warned.
“It’s great if individual member states are able to fill their gas storages before November 1, but if other countries are not able to reach 80 percent – and especially big countries like Germany – then you have to be aware that this will be a domino effect for the whole of Europe,” Jetten told Politico on the sidelines of the EU’s Energy Council meeting on Monday.
Jetten promised that Amsterdam would show “solidarity” with its neighbors if Russia-sourced gas supplies were cut off, but indicated that it would only consider increasing production at the Groningen – Europe’s largest gas field, if all other measures proved insufficient.
“Only in the situation with all countries in the northwestern Europe in phase three [of their emergency plans], and having taken all the other measures you can take to prevent gas shortages, then we can consider production,” the minister said.
The decades-long extraction of gas from the massive Groningen field has been complicated by earthquakes scaring local residents and damaging property, with Amsterdam previously promising to shut down the field in the coming years. The self-inflicted energy price hike facing Europe has led to speculation that the field’s operation could be extended. However, Jetten insisted that under current plans, the field would be shut down by next year or in 2024 at the latest.
For now though, instead of expanding drilling in Groningen, Amsterdam has resorted to burning more coal, and is preparing to announce plans to build a pair of nuclear power plants. Additionally, Amsterdam and Berlin have reached a cooperation pact to jointly search for gas in the North Sea, with hopes that production of any reserves that are tapped can begin in 2024.
Jetten admitted that “quitting” the Groningen field will mean “a huge drop in national gas production from the Netherlands. Everything we’re doing in the North Sea with the smaller fields, it’s not comparable with what we did in Groningen. So net gas production in the Netherlands will go down at a very high pace,” he said.
European countries are scrambling to juggle the next-to-impossible task of shoring up their underground gas storage reserves while dramatically scaling down Russian energy deliveries. Last month, Germany’s Julich Research Centre calculated that without Russian gas, filling up the storage tanks and continuing to operate industry as normal in normal economic conditions may be mathematically impossible to accomplish.
A worker walks in the new furnace at the ThyssenKrupp steel factory in Duisburg, Germany - Sputnik International, 1920, 01.05.2022
EU Can’t Fill Winter Gas Reserves, Simultaneously Operate Industry Without Russian Supplies: Report
Earlier this month, energy specialists told Bloomberg that instead of filling up reserves in the summer months, EU countries are actually chipping away at their reserves. Gas Infrastructure Europe, a Brussels-based organization representing infrastructure operators across the bloc, keeps up to date tabs on European countries’ storage facilities’ status. According to GIE figures, storage facilities are just 56.97 full at present, with the United Kingdom and Poland boasting the highest ratings, of 95 and 97 percent, respectively, while the tanks of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Sweden at sitting at between 27-37 percent of capacity.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed regret that Moscow’s European Union partners had decided to cut down on the purchase of Russian energy “under pressure from their American overlords,” and characterized the move as a form of economic “suicide.”
“One gets the impression that our Western colleagues, politicians and economists have simply forgotten the foundations of the elementary laws of economics, or, to their detriment, prefer to deliberately ignore them,” Putin said. Putin predicted that higher energy prices will severely undermine the European Union’s economic competitiveness vis-à-vis other regions of the world.
Russia’s energy exports have yet to show signs of being affected by the EU and US energy ban, with state energy companies reporting record profits as prices climb and supplies are shifted to other markets.
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