Natural gas in the Netherlands: exploration and development in historic and future perspective

Abstract

The discovery in 1959 of the giant Groningen gas field with reserves of 2750 billion (109) cubic metres (bcm) triggered a strong revival of the hydrocarbon exploration in the Netherlands. Over the last decades, the country has proven to be a very prolific hydrocarbon province, particularly for natural gas. Supported by the favourable exploration climate, exploration efforts have been generally at a high and sustained level. Well over 250 gas accumulations have been discovered throughout the stratigraphic column in various plays. Field sizes range from medium (of the order of 50 bcm) down to very small (2 bcm or less). The total initial reserves in these fields are around 1150 bcm. A mature stage of exploration has now been reached in many areas. Within a few years virtually all production acreage and large parts of the exploration acreage in the Netherlands will have been covered with 3D seismic. The introduction of 3D seismic has led to an improvement of exploration drilling efficiency and to increased technical success rates. Moreover, the application of 3D seismic has indicated additional prospectivity undetected before. It provides a major opportunity, and challenge, for finding incremental reserves. On the development side, nearly all large and medium-size gas fields have, or shortly will, come on stream. However, the majority of the relatively large number of small and marginal fields is still undeveloped. The challenge here is to reduce economic limits by further expansion of the infrastructure and application of modern marginal-field development technology.