Loenhout is a village and ''

deelgemeente A (, literally ''sub-municipality''), or section (), is a subdivision of a municipality in Belgium and, until March 2014, in the Netherlands as well. Belgium Each municipality in Belgium that existed as a separate entity on 1 January 1961 bu ...

'' (sub-municipality) of the municipality of

Wuustwezel Wuustwezel () is a municipality located in the north of the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality as it is now originated in 1977, when Wuustwezel merged with the municipality of Loenhout. It now consists of three major villages, Wuustw ...

in the province of

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. The village is located near the Dutch border, and about north-east of the city of

History

The area around Loenhout used to contain two ''

heerlijkheden A ''heerlijkheid'' (a Dutch word; pl. ''heerlijkheden''; also called ''heerschap''; Latin: ''Dominium'') was a landed estate that served as the lowest administrative and judicial unit in rural areas in the Dutch-speaking Low Countries before 1800. ...

'' under the same Lord, but one was a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

Hoogstraten Hoogstraten () is a municipality and city located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises Hoogstraten, Meer, Meerle, Meersel-Dreef, Minderhout and Wortel (Meersel-Dreef includes the northernmost point in Belgium). Ho ...

while the other belonged to the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant, a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085–1183, and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. The Duchy comprised part of the Bu ...

. Loenhout became a parish in 13th century, and was awarded to the St. Bernard's Abbey of Hemiksen in 1277. The

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, exc ...

in the late 16th century resulted in the destruction of the castle and a near depopulation of the area. In the 18th century, during the rule of

Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (6 June 1772 – 13 April 1807) was the first Empress of Austria and last Holy Roman Empress as the spouse of Francis II. She was born a Princess of Naples as the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand I of the T ...

, the wilderness was cultivated, and Loenhout became an agricultural community specialising in livestock. Loenhout was an independent municipality until 1977 when it was merged with

Nature and landscape

Loenhout is located in the North

Campine The Campine () or Kempen () is a natural region situated chiefly in north-eastern Belgium and parts of the south-eastern Netherlands which once consisted mainly of extensive moors, tracts of sandy heath, and wetlands. It encompasses a large n ...

, a region with a poor

sandy soil Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

sparsely populated before the 20th century. It is a flat area with a height of 13-22 meters. A number of streams run north from the south, of which the Kleine Aa (Small Aa river) is the most important. These streams come together at the Belgian-Dutch border to form the

Aa of Weerijs The Aa of Weerijs (, lit. 'Aa or Weerijs') is a river in Belgium and Netherlands, where it arises from the confluence of the Great Aa (in Wuustwezel) and the Small Aa (in Brecht). In Breda (which means the ''broad Aa'') it is the river in the c ...

. The A1 (E19) motorway and the high-speed train line (Thalys)

Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipal ...

–

cut through the landscape southeast of Loenhout.

Underground gas storage facility

The Belgian

Fluxys Fluxys is a Belgium-based company, mainly acting as a natural gas transmission system operator. In 2004, it employed around 850 people and its infrastructure comprised about of pipelines and a terminal in Zeebrugge, Belgium. The company is list ...

company operates an Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facility of 680 millions cubic meters 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 ...

in Loenhout.Fluxys opslag programma. Beschrijving dienstenaanbod. Opslaginstallatie Loenhout. Versie goedgekeurd door de CREG op 28 mei 2014. Van kracht vanaf 1 juli 2014. 34 pp. In the Dutch language.
/ref> The gas is stored in a

fissure A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure A ...

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

system in the top

Dinantian The Dinantian is a series or epoch from the Lower Carboniferous system in western Europe between 359.2 and 326.4 million years ago. It can stand for a series of rocks in Europe or the time span in which they were deposited. The Dinantian is eq ...

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

s ( Visean age) of the Heibaart structure. The

Lower Carboniferous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is sit ...

carbonates in the Campine-Brabant Basin are highly fractured,Van der Voet, E., Laenen, B., Lagrou, D., Muchez, P., Weltje, G. J., & Swennen, R. (2019). Fracturing in Lower Carboniferous carbonates in the Campine-Brabant Basin (northern Belgium): borehole analyses. In: Proceedings of the European Geothermal Congress 2019. Den Haag, The Netherlands, 11-14 June 2019. pp. 1-5. a prerequisite condition to store gas or to recover deep

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the crust (geology), crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for m ...

. The Heibaart structure was investigated by means of several deep exploration

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

s, the first performed for

Petrofina Petrofina was a Belgium, Belgian oil company. It merged with Total S.A., Total in 1999 to form TotalFina, which after subsequent mergers has changed its name back to Total. In the United States, Fina's former refining and marketing operations ...

in 1962.Dejonghe, L. (1983)
Indice de minéralisation sulfurée (Fe, Zn, Ph, Cu, Ni, Co) liée aux strates du Frasnien (limite F2/F3) dans le sondage d'Heibaart (Loenhout, province d'Anvers)
Petrofina, the main petroleum company in Belgium at this time, was drilling in the North of Belgium in the hope of discovering a

petroleum reservoir A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the prese ...

. The results of the exploration campaign were not successful, but it allowed to identify a promising trapping geological structure that could be used for gas storage. The gas storage project was developed two decades later. The Loenhout UGS is one of the two gas storage systems connected to the Fluxys gas transport grid.Amantini, E., Ricaud, Y., & Grégoire, N. (2009)
Development of the performance of the Loenhout UGS (Antwerp-Belgium) drilling through a highly karstified and fissured limestone reservoir under gas storage operation
In: Conference Proceedings, p. 9. The gas storage system consists of a geological dome structure (in fact looking more like an 'upside-down soup plate' than like a well-shaped dome) covered by a layer of low-permeable caprock. The impermeable

caprock Caprock or cap rock is a hard, resistant, and impermeable layer of rock that overlies and protects a reservoir of softer organic material, similar to the crust on a pie where the crust (caprock) prevents leakage of the soft filling (softer materia ...

is water and gastight and allows to confine high-calorie gas in the underlying fissured limestone aquifer. From April to November, natural gas is injected under pressure in the system and draw down the

water table The water table is the upper surface of the phreatic zone or zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with groundwater, which may be fresh, saline, or brackish, depending on the loc ...

. In the winter, when the gas consumption is high, gas is retrieved from the reservoir and the water table rises again. This unique infrastructure for

was drilled at 1,000 – 1,500 m depth in the 1970's below the land of 5 municipalities (Loenhout,

Rijkevorsel Rijkevorsel () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the town of Rijkevorsel, , and . In 2021, Rijkevorsel had a total population of 12,262. The total area is 46.79 km2. History Rijkevorsel ...

and

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

) but is relatively poorly known by the public in Belgium. With it 9 terrawatt hours (TWh), the gas storage site of Loenhout plays a strategical role in the safety of the gas supply of Belgium (4.74 % of the 190 TWh of natural gas annually consumed in Belgium in 2021), as emphasized by the Federal Belgian government in the frame of the energetic gas crisis in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

resulting from the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. The gas storage system plays a role of buffer to attenuate seasonal fluctuations in the gas market. While being filled in the summer, it contributes to nearly 15% of the winter gas peak consumption in Belgium. In 2007, a second potential site for underground gas storage in the Campine-Brabant Basin was investigated by VITO, the Flemisch Institute for Technological Research, in Poederlee (municipality of

Lille, Belgium Lille () is a municipality located in the Belgian Antwerp Province. The municipality comprises the towns of Lille, Gierle, , and Wechelderzande. In 2021, Lille had a total population of 16,517. The total area is 59.62 km². The Krawatencross ...

). Its estimated total gas storage capacity was lower (300 millions cubic meters) than that of Loenhout (680 millions cubic meters), but the project was abandoned by Fluxys and Gasprom in 2008. There was two reasons for that: (1) the seismic survey showed that only 120 millions cubic meters of gas could be stored in the reservoir structure, and (2) GREG, the regulatory body of energy in Belgium, gave a negative advice to the government. GREG disagreed with the project because it was a joint venture between

and the Russian giant gas company

Gasprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

and that according to the contract of the joint company NV Poederlee Gas Storage, Gasprom would have had the monopoly to operate the site during 25 years and without any regulation.

Events

The largest ''

bloemencorso In the Netherlands and Belgium, a ''bloemencorso'' (; meaning " flower parade", "flower pageant" or "flower procession") is a parade where the floats (''praalwagens''), cars and (in some cases) boats are magnificently decorated or covered in f ...

'' (flower parade) of Belgium is held in Loenhout. All the villages and hamlets in the area compete who has the most beautiful floats made out of flowers. The event is held on the second Sunday of September. The

Azencross The Azencross is a cyclo-cross race held in Loenhout village, Wuustwezel, Belgium. The race has been organized since 1984 and is named after the cycling race Critérium des As in Paris. During 1987-1992 and 2001-2021 the race was part of the Cyc ...

is an annual

cyclo-cross Cyclo-cross (cyclocross, CX, cyclo-X or cross) is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter (the international or "World Cup" season is October–February), and consist of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5&nb ...

race held at the end of December in Loenhout.

Notable people

Goswin Haex van Loenhout Goswin Haex von Loenhout, O. Carm. or Goswinus Hexius (1398 – 31 Mar 1475) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Auxiliary Bishop of Utrecht (1469–1475).Johannes Stadius Johannes Stadius or Estadius ( Dutch: ''Jan Van Ostaeyen''; French: ''Jean Stade'') (ca. 1 May 1527 – 17 June 1579), was a Flemish astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician. He was one of the important late 16th-century makers of ephemerides ...

(1527–1579), astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician *

Marten Van Riel Marten Van Riel (born 15 December 1992) is a Belgian triathlete. Biography Van Riel was born in Loenhout, Antwerp. He competed in the men's event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He ended sixth. In 2018, he won bronze medals at the 2018 European ...

(born 1992), triathlete

Gallery

File:Kerkloenhout.jpg, St Peter and Paul church File:Herbergdekeizerloenhout.jpg, Inn De Keizer File:Wuustwezel Kasteelweg 1-2-3 - 278801 - onroerenderfgoed.jpg, Castle Loenhorst

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Antwerp Province Wuustwezel Natural gas storage