According to the Dutch Government, production at the Groningen natural gas field, operated by Shell and Exxon Mobil, will stop sooner than previously announced. The Parliament will be informed soon on the exact date.
In June 2019, the Government announced that gas production at the Groningen field could decline 20% faster than initially expected for the year starting in October 2019. In 2018, it had pledged to end operations by 2030 and to reduce output as quickly as possible in the coming years, as small though damaging tremors blamed on drilling have aroused critics in the region.
Gas extraction from the Groningen gas field was progressively reduced from 53.8 bcm in 2013 to 42.5 bcm in 2014, 33 bcm in 2015, 27 bcm in 2016, 21.6 bcm in 2017 and 20.1 bcm in 2018 (from October 2017 to October 2018). The maximum production from the year through October 2019 was capped at 19.4 bcm but was revised downward to 12.8 bcm (i.e. -3.1 bcm) after a 3.4 magnitude earthquake in Groningen in May 2019.