Gas consumption in the Netherlands fell by 5% last year, continuing the downward trend of recent years.

Households used 11% less gas in 2023 even though average temperatures were roughly the same as the previous year, according to the statistics agency CBS. Other domestic users such as hospitals, restaurants and shops consumed around 7% less.

Industrial use fell by 4%, but there were wide variations. The agriculture sector used 7% more gas than the previous year, while oil refineries consumed 37% more.

The overall drop was smaller than the 25% cut in gas use in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a spike in gas market prices and prompted western nations to switch to other suppliers.

The United States is now the biggest source of Dutch gas, accounting for 33% of all imports, while Norway – which supplied almost half of the Netherlands’ gas in 2021 – providing 30%.

Just under 9% of gas was sourced from Russia, compared to 24% in 2021.

Gas production has also dropped with the shutdown of the Groningen gas fields: the Netherlands extracted 4.2 billion m3 of gas inland and 6.9 billion m3 at sea, 34% less than in 2022.

The four storage facilities were 81% full at the end of the year, compared to 76% at the end of 2022 and just 33% the year before.