Focusing on saving energy, sustainability, and importing energy from other countries might help the Netherlands plans to end its reliance on Russian gas by the end of 2022, the Dutch Climate Minister Rob Jetten said on Friday during a cabinet meeting, stressing they no longer want to put money into Putin’s war chest.
However, considering the fact that the Netherlands currently imports six billion cubic meters of gas a year, Jetten admitted that it would be a major challenge to end the Dutch dependence on Russian gas within nine months.
According to the estimates published on the Dutch government’s website, the gas consumption in the Netherlands can be reduced by roughly nine billion cubic meters (bcm) by 2025 by focusing on sustainable measures.
Jetten noted that his country can will be able to import an extra eight billion cubic meters of liquid gas (LNG) from other countries by increasing capacity at LNG terminals in Rotterdam and Eemshaven though this will depend on the availability of the gas within the world market.
The Dutch government is also offering incentives to other companies to use the storage location in Bergen, which is 40% owned by Gazprom – which has not used its capacity – to help the Netherlands to boost the volume of gas in storage.
Gazprom has been refusing to fill up the part of the reservoir it has under its management since last summer, which is now assumed that it was part of the plan to store as little gas as possible in Europe ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and experts fear that the Netherlands could face a lack of gas next winter if the gas supply isn’t topped up in the next few months.
However, the government has no plans to start using gas from the currently closed Groningen fields to replace Russian gas, Mining minister Hans Vijlbrief confirmed on Friday.
According to Jetten, The Netherlands also aims to stop Russian coal imports by 11 August 2022 like the rest of the EU countries.
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