The Geopolitics of the Dutch Natural Gas Fields

The Groningen field is a Dutch natural gas field, and it is Europe’s largest gas field.

Picture 1

http://www.timera-energy.com/content/uploads/2013/05/field-map.jpg

There are larger Russian gas fields, but they are located in West Siberia and not in Russia’s European part, and therefore they are Asian gas fields. The South Pars/ North Fields is the king of the gas fields, located in the Persian Gulf. The South Pars/North Fields belongs to Qatar (2/3) and Iran (1/3). At the following Wikipedia table you can see the world’s ten largest gas fields.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_gas_fields

The table is outdated though, and the second largest gas field in the world is the field of Galkynysh in Turkmenistan, which in the table appears as the 6^th largest. You can read about it at the following BBC article titled “China's growing demand for Turkmenistan's gas”, November 2014.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30131418

As you can read at the following Reuters article, titled “Dutch government cuts Groningen gas field production”, June 2015, the Dutch government decided to reduce Groningen’s production, due to the earthquake activity that is associated with its exploitation. This is an old story but the Dutch governments never dared to stop exploiting Groningen. According to Reuters it will be difficult for the Netherlands, and for Europe too, to replace the natural gas quantity which will be lost due to Groningen’s reduced output.

“Dutch government cuts Groningen gas field production”, June 2015

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/23/netherlands-gas-groningen-idUSL8N0Z928L20150623

At the following article from the Russian state owned RT (Russia Today), titled “Dutch govt says sorry for ignoring danger over gas field earthquakes”, March 2015, you will read that the Russians accuse the Dutch for not taking the necessary measures in order to protect the Dutch citizens from the earthquakes caused by Groningen.

“Dutch govt says ‘sorry’ for ignoring danger over gas field earthquakes”, March 2015.

http://www.rt.com/news/236985-netherlands-gas-field-earthquakes/

The Groningen field is competing with Russia’s Gazprom in Northern Europe. The Russian gas already travels to the Netherlands through the Nord Stream and NEL pipelines (Russia-Baltic Sea-Germany-Netherlands). See picture 3.

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Moreover the agreement for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was signed in September 2015, and which will double the Russian gas which will travel to Germany through the Baltic Sea from 55 to 110 billion cubic meters  is not irrelevant to the problems posed by the Groningen field.

England is also facing problems with her energy security too, because the British gas production of the North Sea is falling, and England has already become a net importer of gas. Norway and the Netherlands are facing falling productions too, and the British have turned to the Qataris for liquefied natural gas (LNG). However the Persian Gulf is a very insecure region and no one can assure the British that there will not be a war in the future, which will interrupt the flow of Qatari gas to Great Britain.

The Baltic Sea energy corridor is by far the safest energy corridor for Northern and Northwestern Europe. If however the leftist parties of the European South flood northern Europe with Muslim immigrants, as Mateo Renzi did in Italy in 2014 and Alexis Tsipras did in Greece in 2015, there will be a sharp rise of Islamism in Northern Europe, and the Russo-German pipeline networks will not be that safe anymore.

Neither it is an accident that Geremy Corbyn, the new president of the Labor Party in England, is an anti-American who believes that the American soldiers are similar to ISIS. Remember that many Russian oligarchs have their billions in the City of London, and they make massive investments in England, gaining political support. It is true of course that Jeremy Corbyn also loves the Islamists and asks for more Muslims immigrants in the UK. Qatar is another country that massively invests in the UK, and Qatar promotes Muslim immigrants in Europe. Finally remember that the Russians gave to the Royal Dutch Shell a 10% stake in the Nord Stream 2 project.

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