Holland must succeed. “Minister Gettin has several options,” says Renee Peters, TNO’s oil and gas expert. “First, additional import of LNG by building two floating terminals in Emshavn. Then we have the processing capacity, but we still have to find that LNG.”

The second option, according to Peters, is to quickly reduce gas demand by operating coal-fired plants, which are now 35 percent, at 100 percent. “But yeah, that means more CO2 and we don’t want that either.”

The third option is to save gas. “And that happens almost automatically when the price of gas is too high,” Peters says. “Then consumers and businesses will automatically become more economical.”

More gas from Groningen?

Holland’s problems can be dealt with. The consequences are even greater for Germany, the largest buyer of Russian gas with 55 billion cubic meters of imports. Peters: “It will take years before they get rid of Russian gas. The Germans want to compensate for this 55 billion cubic meters, among other things, with the import of liquefied gas, but there is not enough.”

According to the TNO expert, Groningen gas could come into the picture due to European solidarity. “European countries have stated that if a European country has a problem with its energy supply, it will help other EU countries. And that could become exciting for the Netherlands. Our Groningen gas.”

Take the costs for granted?

Economist Maria Demirtzis of the Bruegel economic think tank in Brussels believes that our country can get rid of Russian gas very quickly. “Before the end of this year.” According to her, Europe as a whole can also get rid of Russian gas, but not without difficult options and high costs.

“To help end that war in Ukraine, should We are getting rid of gas and oil from Russia. We just have to accept the high costs to the economy that this entails. “For example, by borrowing money to compensate people.

“But it’s dilemmas. It’s not easy. You actually have to turn off part of the economy to not use some energy. That’s the difficulty.”