The Energy Regulation and Markets Review - Stikeman Elliott

Chapter 16
Netherlands
Jan Erik Janssen and Martha Brinkman 1
I
OVERVIEW
The Netherlands has an energy industry with an annual output of between €35 and €40
billion. Specifically, the Netherlands is the largest producer and exporter of gas in the
European Union. Although gas reserves are diminishing, the Netherlands is expected to
maintain its position as a net exporter until around 2025. A contractual arrangement
between the state, Shell and ExxonMobil – often referred to as the ‘gas building’ –
determines that NAM (the Dutch national gas company) is the producer of the vast
Groningen balancing field and that GasTerra is responsible for the sale of that output.
NAM is a 50/50 joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil and GasTerra a 50/50
joint venture between NAM and the state.
In 2010, 126.6 billion kWh of electricity and 83.9 billion cubic metres of natural
gas were produced in the Netherlands. Due to its natural gas reserves, the Netherlands can
provide for most of its domestic demand for energy and a large portion of its electricity
is produced in gas-fired plants.
The energy markets in the Netherlands have been completely liberalised. Former
regional energy monopolies have been broken up and the largest production and supply
companies are now part of multinationals such as GDF Suez, RWE and Vattenfall. The
bulk of the energy regulation in the Netherlands relates to transmission and distribution
networks.
i Legislative framework
The legislative framework for the energy sector in the Netherlands is largely based on
the European electricity and gas directives. These directives have been implemented in
the Electricity Act 1998 (‘the Electricity Act’) and the Gas Act (together, ‘the Acts’). At
1 Jan Erik Janssen is a partner and Martha Brinkman is a senior associate at Stek.
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