Written by Reananda Hidayat PermonoCompleted Master Degree from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
The National Statistics Agency CBS announced that households and industries in the Netherlands used 17% less gas between July and October 2022.
It is around 7.3 million cubic meters of natural gas.However, the import was increasing, predominantly liquid natural gas (LNG).
EU countries agreed to cut gas usage by 15% to minimize reliance on Russian gas after the invasion of Ukraine.Dutch gas usage has declined 30% compared with the past five years.
This condition was driven mainly by the Netherlands industry, such as the petroleum and chemical sectors, which minimized its gas consumption by 26% less than in the same period last year.
Besides the high prices, the warmer weather at the beginning of autumn also played a role.Dutch gas imports increased by 15% throughout July-October 2022, with the volume of LNG nearly doubling.
Over half of the Netherlands' LNG imports came from the United States, meanwhile 16% from Russia.
Recently, the Netherlands established a new LNG terminal in Groningen Province.The high gas prices are causing inflation in the country.
The Netherlands' inflation stood at 9.9% in November, against 14.3% in October.Interestingly, the fall in the inflation rate is mainly caused by the drop in energy prices.
Food and energy resources were more expensive than in the same month of 2021.