ExxonMobil’s Belgian subsidiary is suing the Netherlands at ICSID under the Energy Charter Treaty over the shutdown of the Groningen gas field and billions of euros in earthquake-damage levies imposed on its NAM joint venture, a rare mega-claim by a supermajor against a Western European state.
LATEST DEVELOPMENT · FEB 4, 2026
On 4 February 2026, the tribunal granted ExxonMobil’s request for bifurcation, splitting the arbitration into a liability phase, covering the lawfulness of the Netherlands’ payment demands on NAM, with damages and quantum reserved for a later phase. This followed October 2025 provisional measures ordering the Netherlands to suspend its Belgian anti-arbitration proceedings.
BACKGROUND
Groningen, Europe’s largest gas field, was operated by NAM, a 50/50 joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil, until earthquake damage from decades of extraction forced a wind-down: production stopped in October 2023 and the field was closed definitively by statute in April 2024. The Dutch state has billed NAM for the mounting costs of damage compensation and building reinforcement through invoices and statutory levies. NAM has paid €3.96B ‘under protest’ across more than forty payment demands, contending they are unlawful. ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BV, the group’s Belgian entity, filed an ICSID arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty, registered on 21 October 2024 (ARB/24/44). The tribunal, Mohamed Abdel Wahab presiding, with Stanimir Alexandrov and Jorge Viñuales, was constituted in July 2025. The Netherlands, which formally exited the ECT in June 2025, contests jurisdiction on intra-EU grounds, while the treaty’s 20-year sunset clause underpins the claim.
The case has already produced notable interim rulings. After the Netherlands sued in the Antwerp courts to attack the tribunal’s jurisdiction, the tribunal on 31 October 2025 partly granted provisional measures, ordering the state to suspend the Belgian proceedings until the tribunal rules on its own jurisdiction (while declining to restrain future levies). A further provisional-measures decision followed on 24 December 2025. On 4 February 2026, the tribunal bifurcated the case: a first phase on liability, including whether the state’s payment demands are unlawful, with quantum reserved for a second phase. Shell filed a parallel ICSID claim over Groningen on 23 December 2025 (ARB/26/2), and related contract arbitrations between the JV partners and the state are also pending.
TIMELINE
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FEB 4, 2026PROCEDURALCase bifurcated into liability and quantum phasesProcedural Order No. 6: the first phase will decide liability, including any unlawfulness of the Netherlands’ payment demands. Quantum follows if needed.
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DEC 24, 2025PROCEDURALTribunal rules on ExxonMobil’s second provisional-measures applicationProcedural Order No. 5, concerning the continuing payment demands.
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DEC 23, 2025OTHERShell files parallel ICSID claim over Groningen (ARB/26/2)
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OCT 31, 2025PROCEDURALProvisional measures partly granted: Netherlands ordered to suspend Belgian proceedingsProcedural Orders 3 and 4: the tribunal ordered suspension of the state’s Antwerp anti-arbitration suit pending its jurisdiction ruling, but declined to restrain future levies.
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JUL 15, 2025PROCEDURALTribunal constitutedMohamed Abdel Wahab (president), Stanimir Alexandrov and Jorge Viñuales.
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OCT 21, 2024FILINGICSID registers ExxonMobil’s ECT arbitration (ARB/24/44)
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APR 2024OTHERGroningen field permanently closed by lawProduction had already stopped in October 2023. The state continued billing NAM for earthquake damage and reinforcement costs.