GasTerra is a Dutch partially

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

company that is active in the worldwide trade and supply of

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

. It is owned by

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

(25%),

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

(25%) and the

Dutch government The Netherlands is a parliamentary representative democracy. A constitutional monarchy, the country is organised as a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekke, Frits M. Meer, Edward E ...

(50%). Its history dates back to 2005, when the company was created after a split-up of the

Gasunie N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie (short form: Gasunie) is a Dutch natural gas infrastructure and transportation company operating in the Netherlands and Germany. Gasunie owns the Netherlands gas transmission network with a total length of over and long ...

. Before 2005, the Gasunie was authorized to both sell and transport natural gas discovered in the Netherlands. Due to the

liberalisation Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used ...

of the European gas market, transportation and trade and supply had to be separated into independent companies. In 2005 this separation took place, creating both GasTerra and a natural gas transportation company. The last company kept the original name, Gasunie. The Netherlands has long been a net exporter of natural gas, but in recent years the national gas supply has fallen faster than demand. The turning point was in 2018, when the Netherlands became a net gas importer in that year. About 10 billion m³ was imported in 2019, mainly due to the extra import of LNG. Due to the accelerated phasing out of the extraction of Groningen natural gas, the company will have to close within a few years. Minister Eric Wiebes announced this on 7 October 2019 in a letter to the House of Representatives. Gas extraction from the Groningen field will cease in 2022, which means that GasTerra's core activity as a sales office for Groningen gas will cease. In September 2020, GasTerra announced that it would stop permanently on December 31, 2024. A social plan has been drawn up for the approximately 165 employees in which compulsory redundancies are prevented as much as possible and employees are guided to new work.

References

External links

Corporate website of GasTerra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasterra Natural gas companies of the Netherlands Corporate spin-offs