Dutch gas company NAM is cutting its workforce by hundreds of jobs as gas prices fall and production is cut back.

Over the next six months, 200 to 300 of the permanent workforce of 1,300 will be able to take advantage of a voluntary redundancy scheme and a further 300 contract workers will be let go, regional paper Dagblad van het Noorden said.

Director Johan Atema told the paper that the company had been hit by falling gas prices. ‘We are supplying almost as much gas as last year, but our income has halved,’ he said. ‘Then you are talking about a crisis situation.’

NAM is a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil and was set up to develop gas fields in Groningen in the late 1940s. The company also now operates in the North and Wadden seas.

The Dutch government is closing down production of gas from the northern Groningen field as part of efforts to phase out the use of gas by Dutch households by 2050. Over nine in 10 Dutch households currently use gas.