Gas production in Groningen is being temporarily restarted as a “precautionary measure” as temperatures are forecast to drop to minus six by the middle of the week.

Caretaker mining minister Hans Vijlbrief stressed that a “minimal” quantity would be extracted from the northern gas field, where production officially ended in October.

However, the government retained the option to keep five drilling locations open for a year to deal with potential cold spells that threaten to interfere with gas supplies.

Vijlbrief said in a letter to parliament that two locations in Spitsbergen and Scheemderzwaag would pump gas for “around two days” until temperatures rose above zero – which is forecast to happen on Thursday.

Overnight temperatures below minus 6.5 risk threatening the transfer of gas from the Norg storage facility in Drenthe, Vijlbrief explained.

The end of regular gas production in Groningen in October last year was met with widespread scepticism in the region, where more than 1,600 earthquakes have been triggered by drilling since the 1980s, damaging 85,000 buildings.

The Dutch government earned €360 billion since the Slochteren gas field was opened in 1963, with another €66 billion split between Shell and ExxonMobil.