Oil companies Shell and Exxon have asked the Dutch government for extra guarantees if it begins large scale imports of gas from countries such as Algeria, Angola, Libya, Norway and Russia, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.

The two companies are joint owners of Dutch gas and oil extraction company NAM, which operates the massive gas reserves under Groningen. They are worried that imports from other gas-producing nations will hit their own sales and prices, the paper says, quoting company and economic affairs ministry sources.
The Netherlands wants to become the centre of the European gas industry in terms of storage, trade and distribution.