The Netherlands will not allow gas extraction in the Wadden Sea for environmental reasons

The Netherlands will not allow gas extraction in the part of the protected Wadden Sea that belongs to the country. The reason is environmental concerns, the government announced yesterday. The decision blocks NAM’s plans to explore for gas in the area.

NAM is a joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil. The company discovered gas reserves of up to 40 billion cubic metres in the Wadden Sea in the mid-1990s. It believes it could find a further 30 to 130 billion cubic metres there. By comparison, the Netherlands’ annual gas consumption was 31 billion cubic metres in 2022. Since then, gas extraction in the nature reserve has become a sensitive issue.

Mining Minister Hans Vijlbrief said new forecasts of accelerated sea-level rise due to climate change had changed the outlook for gas extraction at the site and increased the risks it could pose to the seabed.

The Dutch parliament also voted yesterday in favour of a proposal to build four new nuclear power plants instead of two. In 2022, the government decided to build two nuclear power plants by 2035. Two more plants are expected to be ready for operation by 2040. These plants will play an important role in the country’s energy transition, as it aims to make its electricity generation carbon-neutral by 2040.

The Wadden Sea is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Last year, the UN warned that the area could lose this status if gas extraction were permitted there.

The Wadden Sea is the coastal part of the North Sea between the Frisian Islands and the mainland of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is a so-called tidal sea, a type of extensive coastal area of sandy and muddy shallows that is flooded at high tide and exposed at low tide.