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Dutch Climate Minister Rob Jetten
Photo: IMAGO/Phil Nijhuis / IMAGO/ANP
Germany is struggling with an import ban on Russian gas - the Netherlands, on the other hand, now want to become independent.
After a cabinet meeting, Dutch climate and energy minister Rob Jetten promised that the country would be self-sufficient by the end of the year.
Through savings and gas imports from other countries, "we will be able to replace all Russian gas supplies," Jetten said, according to the Dutch media.
The Netherlands currently imports six billion cubic meters of gas a year.
In order to become independent, according to Jetten's wishes, new gas fields in the North Sea should also be developed and existing ones expanded.
The government also states that it wants to pay companies if they fill the large Bergermeer natural gas storage facility before the start of winter.
The state-owned energy company EBN is to ensure that the system is at least 70 percent full.
The storage facility is one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
At the beginning of April, Jetten suggested to Germany that a gas field in the German-Dutch border area of the North Sea be developed, the volume of which is estimated at 60 billion cubic meters.
The value corresponds to the amount of gas that flowed from Russia to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline last year.
"In an ideal world, we wouldn't develop any new gas fields in the North Sea," Jetten said.
"But the situation makes this necessary." Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had rejected the project at a meeting in April.
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