In 2008, GasTerra purchased 84.1 billion m3 of natural gas. This volume represents an increase of 8 per cent compared to 2007. Purchases from the ‘small fields’ in the Netherlands were 35.8 billion m3, a decrease of 4 per cent compared to 2007. Gas from the small fields represented 42 per cent of total purchases. An amount of 39.3 billion m3 natural gas was bought from the Groningen field. In 2007 this figure was 30.4 billion m3.
The greatest proportion of the gas purchased by GasTerra in 2008 came from the Groningen field (around 47 per cent) following many years in which natural gas purchased from the small fields represented the greatest proportion. This situation represents a fundamental change. The Netherlands government is propagating a policy of handling natural gas carefully as a precious mineral resource. From this viewpoint, the government is placing a restriction on the quantity of natural gas that may be sold, on average, from the Groningen field; over a period of 10 years, 425 billion m3 of natural gas may be purchased from the Groningen field.
GasTerra also buys gas from Russia and Norway. These imports supplement the purchases from Dutch reserves and are also of importance to GasTerra over the long term, enabling the company to create a structurally strong, international gas portfolio.
Small fields policy
An important GasTerra duty is to perform the public role laid down under the Gas Act regarding taking gas from small Dutch fields. This means that at all times, producers have a buyer in GasTerra, which buys the gas at a arms’ length principle based price.
To continue to do this in a satisfactory manner, additional contractual agreements have been made with the national network operator GTS regarding taking Dutch gas from the small fields. As mentioned earlier, in 2007 GasTerra modified the purchasing conditions for gas from the small fields, enabling a flatter supply profile to be achieved. In September, Policy Research Corporation published a report commissioned by GasTerra entitled ‘Naar een doelmatige winning van kleine velden gas’ (Towards an efficient extraction of small fields gas). The report urged the Dutch government to improve the exploration and exploitation climate for ‘new fields’ producers and to give the network operator GTS clarity concerning investments regarding the small fields.
Three new contracts were concluded in 2007 for the purchase of natural gas from small fields. GasTerra will continue to make its contribution to the continuation of the small fields policy.
