Netherlands contributes 45 per cent of Europe’s gas processing capacity

The Netherlands drives Europe’s gas processing industry, with 24,587 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas processing capacity from 50 active gas processing plants, contributing around 45 per cent of the total active gas processing capacity in the region, according to GlobalData.

The company’s report ‘Gas Processing Industry Outlook in Europe to 2023 – Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook with Details of All Operating and Planned Processing Plants’ reveals that Europe presently has a total gas processing capacity of 55,066.1 mmcfd from active gas processing plants.

Major gas processing plants in the Netherlands are Balgzand-HiCal, Balgzand-Nogat and Amsweer, with gas processing capacities of 1,587 mmcfd, 1270 mmcfd and 762 respectively.

Dipayan Chakraborty, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Netherlands is one of the important producers of natural gas in Europe, and therefore has built substantial capacity to process natural gas. The majority of the country’s gas processing plants are located in the Groningen province, home to the giant Groningen gas field, which is considered one of the largest natural gas fields globally.”

GlobalData identifies the UK as the second largest country in Europe in terms of gas processing capacity. The country is expected to have around 14,746 mmcfd of gas processing capacity from 16 active gas processing plants. Around 27 per cent of Europe’s total gas processing capacity is contributed by the UK. 

Chakraborty added, “In Europe two planned gas processing plants, Vadu in Romania and Endrod II in Hungary with gas processing capacities of 96.7 mmcfd and 8.5 mmcfd respectively, are expected to start operations by 2023.”