Dutch Gas Storage Boost Blocked by Court; Seismic Cited
Leading Dutch gas producer NAM has been barred from boosting capacity in the foreseeable future at one of the country's largest gas storage facilities as there is a fear that it could cause tremors underground.
NAM, a 50-50 joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil, is barred from increasing gas pressure at the Norg gas storage facility and the economy minister will have to draft a new decision to provide more arguments for the pressure increase, ruled the Council of State’s Administrative Jurisdiction Division, the country’s highest general administrative court, on September 7.
The municipalities of Noordenveld and Leek had asked the court to suspend the minister's decision to allow an increase in gas pressure, because they are worried about the potential consequences of such an increase for their citizens’ safety. They feel that the minister should have done more research into the risks of increasing the gas pressure.
This is not an entirely new decision. In August 2015, the economy minister agreed to allow the average pressure in the Norg storage reservoir to be increased from 225 bar to 347 bar, enabling the storage of 5.9bn m3, rather than 5bn m3, in one of the compartments available for storage.
At the moment, the Administrative Jurisdiction Division said it was unable to fully judge whether an increase to that pressure level is allowed legally, as it would need to take note of a new decision by the minister that is not expected to be announced before February 1 2018. So instead it has suspended the minister's August 2015 decision, meaning that NAM is barred for the time being from increasing the gas pressure.
Seismic threat
This is not the first time that the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State has passed a judgment on the changes in the storage of gas near Norg. In March 2017 it ruled that the minister had allowed a larger range in pressure levels in one of the compartments without a sufficient explanation of the interests that required the larger range in pressure levels and that the minister should have expanded on the effects of that increased pressure range on the seismic threat.
The minister has not yet offered a better explanation and so the municipalities of Noordenveld and Leek have asked the Administrative Jurisdiction Division to suspend the minister's decision, to prevent an imminent increase in pressure.
The Netherlands has a recent history of minor, but shallow-level, earth tremors caused by gas production that have damaged property and disrupted life.
The Arnhem-Leeuwarden court April 20 reopened the issue of whether NAM may be criminally prosecuted for damage to property caused by earthquakes above its Groningen gasfield, which Shell and ExxonMobil had thought was a closed chapter.
Meanwhile the Council of State expects to give its ruling mid-November on whether the NAM-operated Groningen field should be allowed to continue producing at all, following damage from by earth tremors and the risks of more to come. It would come as a shock to the Dutch economy, Shell and ExxonMobil, were the court to choose to shut in the giant field, and would accelerate the country's shift from gas exporter to net gas importer.
Mark Smedley