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10.08.2011 09:28
© TAQA
Europe’s biggest gas storage project at the Dutch Bergermeer field will not be ready for use in 2014 as planned. The delay is caused after a court ruled that the work at the site must stop because of environmental fears, Reuters reports. Abu Dhabi Energy Company (TAQA), the operator and major shareholder in the 4.1 billion cubic metre gas storage facility, said the project would be delayed as a result of the court order on Monday allowing environmentalists and locals, who fear that injecting gas could cause earth tremors, to appeal its approval.
Bergermeer was approved by the Dutch government earlier this year and, along with the soon-to-be-completed LNG terminal in Rotterdam, and is an important part of the Netherlands’ plan to become a European hub for natural gas once it stops exporting gas in 2025. The project would nearly double the Netherlands’ gas storage capacity and give it more flexibility in meeting fluctuating demand in northwest Europe, for example in Belgium and the northern parts of Germany and France, particularly as gas reserves in the Dutch Groningen gas field are depleted.
The ruling by the top court in the Netherlands allows time for the appeal by opponents to be heard, with a ruling on that case expected later this year or in early 2012. A 500 million cubic metre storage already exists in the vicinity of Bergen, but there was no local opposition to its construction as tremors did not occur as a result of gas extraction. The Netherlands recently abandoned plans to store carbon dioxide onshore in depleted underground gas fields because of local opposition.
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