The Groningen gas field in the Netherlands is vast. It’s the largest in the European Union, and one of the 10 biggest in the world. Its available reserves of about 450 billion cubic meters are equivalent to all the EU’s needs for one year.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-09/nether…
Jaak
If the field requires fracking it is a no go. The Netherlands being below sea level.
Keeping with the cubic meters convention, from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2021 edition…
https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/c…
Page 34 of the document has the proved reserves of natural gas for the various regions. A summary below:
Proved reserves of natural gas, trillion cubic meters.
North America: 15.2 trillion m3
South America: 7.9
Europe: 3.2
CIS: 56.6
Middle East: 75.8
Africa: 12.9
Asia Pacific: 16.6
Europe appears to have the smallest amount of natural gas reserves compared to all other regions.
CIS is the Commonwealth of Independent States, comprised of Russia, plus the various countries created by the dissolution of the old Soviet Union, WITH THE EXCEPTION of Ukraine. Ukraine is included in the BP document as part of Europe.
It can also be noted that the country with the largest gas reserves in Europe is Norway. Norway is not part of the EU, although I am sure the Norwegians are happy to sell their gas to the EU. The country in Europe with the second largest reserves is Ukraine. Obviously, if V. Putin ends up owning Ukraine, then it could well move to the CIS category, and out of Europe. Norway and Ukraine together have 80% of Europe’s gas reserves. The reserves reported for the Netherlands is rather small (0.1 trillion m3).
Why were the Germans so intent on building the Nord Stream pipelines to Russia, if the Netherlands has such vast amounts of available natural gas?
Why were the Germans so intent on building the Nord Stream pipelines to Russia, if the Netherlands has such vast amounts of available natural gas?
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Because of the influence of Gerhard Schröder (previously German Chancellor from 27 October 1998 – 22 November 2005) who worked with Russians to sell the Germans cheap Russian natural gas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der
Only a few days after his chancellorship, Schröder joined the board of directors of the Nord Stream joint venture, thus bringing about new speculations about his prior objectivity. In his memoirs Decisions: My Life in Politics, Schröder still defends his friend and political ally, and states that “it would be wrong to place excessive demands on Russia when it comes to the rate of domestic political reform and democratic development, or to judge it solely on the basis of the Chechnya conflict.”
Schröder’s continued close connection to Vladimir Putin and his government after his chancellorship has been widely criticized in Germany.
Jaak
Realistically one year of ng from Hollande is not much at all.
Germany did what was common sense until the invasion of Ukraine the country took cheap Russian fossil fuels. Now that is changing.
Even Putin who I have detested for years was innocent till proven guilty or something like that. The Monday morning quarterbacking notwithstanding.