The Netherlands is going to reopen the largest gas field in Europe.

Bloomberg writes that the Groningen field has enough unused capacity to replace most of the fuel Germany previously imported from Russia. Currently, the lot is in the process of being closed, and the Netherlands has so far rejected calls to increase production volumes. Dutch Mining Minister Hans Wijlbrief said that the lack of gas and problems with heating hospitals, schools, and homes could force the country to reverse course and open the deposit. Shell, one of the field operators, estimates that the additional flow that can be obtained immediately can replace the 46 billion cubic meters of gas imported by Germany from Russia last year. After half a century of operation, the field still has about 450 billion cubic meters of extractable gas worth about $1T. There is an opportunity to extract approximately 50 billion cubic meters per year.