The Netherlands will provisionally cease operations at its gas fields in Groningen from 1 October this year, with the aim of shutting down facilities permanently a year later, Belga News Agency reports.
The announcement, which was made by State Secretary for the Extractive Industries Hans Vijlbrief on Friday, had long been expected despite fears the gas fields' closure could exacerbate supply shortages triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
The decision also follows numerous earthquakes and tremors caused by drilling over the past few years, which have enraged local residents and are estimated to have damaged up to 85,000 buildings in the area.
"The people of Groningen's problems have not been solved and the quakes will unfortunately continue for some time," Vijlbrief said. "But at least the source of all the trouble is being closed down in October."
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In his comments, Vijlbrief also tried to allay concerns that the fields' closure will exacerbate Europe's energy crisis this winter by suggesting that production could be restarted in the event of an emergency.
"If it's very cold and we have problems at a storage we will be able to restart one or more facilities. But the decision is that production will be zero from 1 October," he said.
Since its discovery in 1959, the gas fields have earned the Dutch Government more than €363.7 billion, while €64.7 billion has been split between Shell and ExxonMobil, the joint operators of the fields.
