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Norg gas site role unclear as deal with Hague nears end

  • Märkte: Natural gas
  • 06.10.26

The future of Norg as a seasonal gas storage site remains unclear, as the Norg agreement — under which the Dutch government pays Nam to use the site without Groningen production — is set to expire at the end of this gas year. The expiry could make the site unprofitable for the operator.

The 59TWh Norg is linked to the Groningen gas field. After Groningen closed in October 2024, the government agreed to compensate operator Nam — a joint venture equally owned by Shell and ExxonMobil — until 30 September 2027 for lost revenue from gas that could have been produced from the field, stored and sold on the market.

The government also pays Gasterra — equally owned by the Dutch state and Nam — which was responsible for filling Norg until last year, the extra cost of buying low-calorie gas, transport, losses from unused flexibility and optimisation. These payments generated €179mn in revenue in 2025, up from €176mn in 2024, Nam said in its annual results on Monday.

Revenue from the Norg agreement accounted for more than 30pc of Nam's net sales. Nam's net sales fell sharply to €565mn in 2025 from €3.14bn in 2024, mainly because of the loss of remuneration from Gasterra, the end of Groningen-related sales and lower sales following the sale of Nam's offshore gas assets.

The expiry of the Norg agreement, combined with Nam's reduced sales as it ramps down its production activities, would remove a substantial share of the firm's revenue.

After the agreement ends, Norg's value to Nam appears to depend mainly on securing the permit to withdraw Norg's cushion gas. The firm already holds a production licence for Norg, but it cannot start withdrawing cushion gas until the minister for climate and green growth approves its production plan. The plan was filed in September 2023 and has been through all statutory advisers, but no draft decision has yet been published. A six-week consultation and a final ruling must still follow.

Nam expects a decision on Norg by the end of the year, it said in its annual results, adding that the decision is important for the flexibility and reliability of Dutch supply. The Dutch authority ACM must also confirm that ending storage does not reduce supply security as closing Norg would reduce Dutch working storage capacity to 85TWh. The risk of seismic activity in the area also remains. If the plan is approved, Nam could produce around 23bn m³ (225TWh) of cushion gas, Dutch technological institute TNO said in 2020, which would then lead to the closure of the site.

Assuming the site's firm withdrawal capacity of 732 GWh/d is maximised, the entire volume could be extracted in about 10 months. But this depends on when Nam sees fit to withdraw the volumes.

But if the permit is refused or delayed, the Norg agreement will still expire, and the site would probably continue to function as seasonal storage, which could be a financial burden for both Nam and the government.

Nam and the government agreed that state-owned EBN would fill the site during the current storage year, effective 1 April, after Nam took over operations from Gasterra. But the TTF summer 2026-winter 2026-27 spread remained inverted throughout the summer, providing no economic incentive to inject gas into Norg for withdrawals over winter.

The TTF summer 2027-winter 2027-28 spread was also inverted at €4.26/MWh at the latest close. Nam has launched an open season for uptake of storage space at Norg for the 2027-28 gas year, but current storage spreads indicate limited scope for success if held until delivery.

The government plans to move away from using EBN as the filling agent and seeks to improve third-party storage access through legislation from 2028-29 as filling storage was an expensive task for EBN. But the TTF summer 2028-winter 2028-29 spread has been normalised, closing at -€0.175/MWh on Monday. This may strengthen the case for keeping Norg open and not withdrawing its cushion gas.

Norg had the largest withdrawals during the 2025-26 winter, indicating its continued relevance for security of supply. Dutch net withdrawals averaged 517 GWh/d in October 2025-March 2026, with Norg accounting for 30pc, at 150 GWh/d. Norg net withdrawals averaged 517 GWh/d, or 44pc of total, in January, the peak demand month.

The role of storage will decline in the coming years, especially for low-calorie gas — the type that Norg stores, Nam said in its report. Any conversion from low to high-calorie gas adds costs for customers, who could likely source high-calorie gas elsewhere. Low-calorie residential demand averaged 537 GWh/d last winter, peaking at 788 GWh/d in January, well above Norg withdrawals for that month.


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