The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate of the Netherlands has decided to cut gas extraction from the Groningen gas field to a maximum of 8.1 bcm in the next gas year (October 2020-September 2021). In June 2020, the Dutch State Supervision of Mines recommended to reduce gas production from the field to 9.3 bcm in the year through October 2021 in order to limit the risk of earthquakes. Gas extraction from the field, which is operated by a joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil is capped at 11.8 bcm for the year ending October 2020. Under normal climate conditions, Groningen gas production would drop to 8.1 bcm in 2020-2021 and to 3 bcm in 2021-2022, before reaching 0 from the spring of 2022. After 2022, the field will be used as a reserve during an extremely cold situation. It will close in 2025-2026. In October 2019, the government said that it would not seek to offset the end of gas extraction at the Groningen field in 2022 by increasing production from the 240 small gas fields in the country.