Netherlands energy profile
Netherlands — from Europe's gas giant to offshore wind pioneer
2,740 Bcm
Groningen's recoverable gas at discovery (1959)
1 Oct 2023
Groningen extraction permanently ended
~1.2 M bbl/day
Rotterdam refining cluster — Europe's largest
~21 GW by 2032
Offshore wind target (from ~4.7 GW today)
Groningen — the field that funded a nation, then had to close
Europe's largest gas field, closed by the earthquakes it caused
What Groningen was:
Discovered in 1959 near Slochteren, Groningen turned out to be one of the largest natural gas fields ever found — early estimates of 60 billion cubic metres were revised upward repeatedly, eventually reaching roughly 2,740 billion cubic metres. Extraction began in 1963, and within years virtually the entire Netherlands was connected to Groningen gas; the field also underpinned gas exports across much of Western Europe. Over its lifetime, the Dutch state is estimated to have earned around $442 billion from Groningen revenues — a foundational source of post-war Dutch public finances.
Discovered in 1959 near Slochteren, Groningen turned out to be one of the largest natural gas fields ever found — early estimates of 60 billion cubic metres were revised upward repeatedly, eventually reaching roughly 2,740 billion cubic metres. Extraction began in 1963, and within years virtually the entire Netherlands was connected to Groningen gas; the field also underpinned gas exports across much of Western Europe. Over its lifetime, the Dutch state is estimated to have earned around $442 billion from Groningen revenues — a foundational source of post-war Dutch public finances.
Why it closed:
Extraction caused subsidence and, from 1991 onward, induced earthquakes — roughly 1,470 recorded between 1986 and 2018 alone, damaging thousands of homes and prompting the Dutch National Ombudsman to call it a "national crisis" in 2021. Despite pressure to keep the field open during Europe's post-2022 energy crisis (it was estimated the field could still supply up to 15% of European gas needs), the Dutch government held firm: routine extraction ended 1 October 2023, with the final production wells — kept on standby for emergencies such as severe cold snaps — permanently closed from October 2024. The closure marked the country's shift from major gas exporter to net importer, a transition that had already begun around 2018.
Extraction caused subsidence and, from 1991 onward, induced earthquakes — roughly 1,470 recorded between 1986 and 2018 alone, damaging thousands of homes and prompting the Dutch National Ombudsman to call it a "national crisis" in 2021. Despite pressure to keep the field open during Europe's post-2022 energy crisis (it was estimated the field could still supply up to 15% of European gas needs), the Dutch government held firm: routine extraction ended 1 October 2023, with the final production wells — kept on standby for emergencies such as severe cold snaps — permanently closed from October 2024. The closure marked the country's shift from major gas exporter to net importer, a transition that had already begun around 2018.
The offshore wind build-out
Replacing Groningen with the North Sea
Where things stand:
The Netherlands had approximately 4.7 GW of offshore wind operating by 2026, across more than 10 wind farms and over 500 turbines in the Dutch North Sea — including Borssele (752 MW, partly Ørsted-operated). The government's target of approximately 21 GW by 2030 — enough to cover roughly 75% of current Dutch electricity demand — has slipped to 2032 due to grid-connection supply-chain constraints, but the trajectory remains aggressive: the Dutch continental shelf spans some 57,000 km², among the largest areas any single country controls in the North Sea.
The Netherlands had approximately 4.7 GW of offshore wind operating by 2026, across more than 10 wind farms and over 500 turbines in the Dutch North Sea — including Borssele (752 MW, partly Ørsted-operated). The government's target of approximately 21 GW by 2030 — enough to cover roughly 75% of current Dutch electricity demand — has slipped to 2032 due to grid-connection supply-chain constraints, but the trajectory remains aggressive: the Dutch continental shelf spans some 57,000 km², among the largest areas any single country controls in the North Sea.
What's coming next:
IJmuiden Ver, at a planned 6 GW, is one of the largest offshore wind zones under development anywhere in the world and will use direct-current transmission to cut losses over distance. Hollandse Kust Noord pairs wind with marine solar and green hydrogen electrolysis in what developers call a "Baseload Power Hub," storing surplus power as hydrogen — part of a broader Dutch target of 3-4 GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030. Longer-term planning envisions 30-40 GW of offshore wind by around 2040 and as much as 70 GW by 2050, which would make offshore wind the dominant pillar of the Dutch electricity system.
IJmuiden Ver, at a planned 6 GW, is one of the largest offshore wind zones under development anywhere in the world and will use direct-current transmission to cut losses over distance. Hollandse Kust Noord pairs wind with marine solar and green hydrogen electrolysis in what developers call a "Baseload Power Hub," storing surplus power as hydrogen — part of a broader Dutch target of 3-4 GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030. Longer-term planning envisions 30-40 GW of offshore wind by around 2040 and as much as 70 GW by 2050, which would make offshore wind the dominant pillar of the Dutch electricity system.
Questions
Questions about Dutch energy
Why did the Netherlands close one of the world's largest gas fields during a European energy crisis?
It looks paradoxical on the surface — Europe was scrambling for gas supply after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Groningen still held hundreds of billions of cubic metres of recoverable gas. But the decision had already been made years earlier, for reasons largely separate from the energy crisis: extraction was causing earthquakes strong enough to damage tens of thousands of homes, and the human cost had become impossible to justify politically. The earthquakes are a direct consequence of the extraction itself — as gas is pumped out, the rock layers above the field compact and shift, and Groningen's geology made this unusually disruptive to the surface above it. A parliamentary inquiry found the government had paid "barely any attention to the long-term risks" during the field's most productive decades, and by the early 2020s the political consensus to close it was firm enough to survive the pressure of the energy crisis. The government did keep a small number of wells on standby through an extra winter for genuine emergencies, but the underlying decision — that local safety outweighed the field's remaining commercial and strategic value — held. The result is a Netherlands that now imports gas it once exported at scale, while redirecting that same industrial and engineering capacity into building one of the world's largest offshore wind fleets. Source: Wikipedia (Groningen gas field) · France 24 · Gas Outlook.
Provenance
Attribution and citation
- Sources
- Wikipedia (Groningen gas field) · France 24 · Gas Outlook · NedZero (Dutch offshore wind facts) · S&P Global Commodity Insights · RVO.nl (Netherlands Enterprise Agency)
- Cite as
- "Netherlands Energy Profile — Complete Reference", The Energy Codex, https://thecodex.expert/energy/countries/netherlands/, last updated .