Amsterdam company exploring North Sea gas extraction

To increase Dutch gas production, more gas could be extracted from small fields in the North Sea. The Amsterdam company ONE-Dyas wants to increase natural gas production to fill the gap created by reduced supply from Russia. It hopes to start extracting gas from the first field in 2024 and a second a year later.

Together, the two fields would produce 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. That’s enough for 12 percent of the national demand. Earlier this year, ONE-Dyas already committed to spend more than 500 million euros on developing an offshore field, the largest investment in Dutch natural gas production in 15 years.

The company plans to make a final investment decision on a satellite field to further expand production, CEO Chris de Ruyter van Steveninck said in an interview with Bloomberg in London. “This is just a continuous process of adding new wells to the whole development. There’s more to come.”

The first field will start production in the third quarter of 2024. About a year later, production will be approximately 2 billion cubic meters. If everything goes according to plan, the satellite field will follow a year later.

Before the war in Ukraine, the European Union imported about 140 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia, according to figures from the International Energy Agency. Since then, imports have fallen by about 80 percent, bumping gas prices to record highs earlier this year.

Instead of Russian gas, the Netherlands and Europe are importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from other countries like the United States and Qatar. It is also cheaper and less polluting to use local resources.

ONE-Dyas’s extra production will not help this winter or next winter. But it is expected that Europe’s energy shortage could last for years if supplies from Russia fail to materialize.