For four hundred years, the Netherlands has been importing resources from the Arctic for the rest of Europe – whether whale blubber from Svalbard or gas from Siberia.
Over the five-day Easter holiday, I traveled from the high latitudes to Europe’s lowlands. The Netherlands is cursed with one of the world’s least extreme landscapes. The monotonous mudflats, despite charmingly blossoming into fields of tulips each spring, may have driven their inhabitants to the ends of the Earth in search of more inspiring topography. If the Dutch could dig canals through the muck, perhaps they could carve a passage through the ice to Asia.
In the late sixteenth century, Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz sailed from the Netherlands around Norway and the north coast of Russia seeking a shortcut to China and India. The Dutch had been trading with Russian merchants around the White Sea since the 1570s, where they had begun to rival the English, who had been active since the 1550s. The Dutch were keen to push on further east through what were then called the “North Seas” to reach Asia.
Thick ice, however, halted the first two of Barentsz’ expeditions in 1594 and 1595. Even in the middle of July, the ice was so unforgiving around Novaya Zemlya that it forced the second expedition to head back for the low-lying comforts of home. The crew did manage to bring back some small fortunes with them, however.
Gerrit de Veer, a Dutch officer onboard the second and third expeditions, described a brazen encounter during the first expedition with the wildlife around the Islands of Orange, the name the Dutch bequeathed upon the frozen spits of rock north of Novaya Zemlya. After spotting “sea-horses,” or walruses, basking onshore, the sailors tried to bludgeon them to death for their ivory tusks. Yet the walruses broke “all their hatchets, curtle-axes, and pikes in pieces.” The men could not kill a single walrus, though they did manage to “strike some of the teeth out of their mouths, which they took with them.”
Once back on the ship, the Dutchmen retrieved their firearms to shoot the walruses. The wind had other ideas, however, blowing so hard that it ripped the ice apart. Deterred from walrus hunting, the men happened to spot a sleeping “great white beare,” which they shot instead. The polar bear ran away and dove into the water, where the crew successfully pursued her by driving a half-pike into the ill-fated ursine’s body. Emboldened by the outcome of this quest, they again tried to go after the walruses, but the gusts strengthened, and they gave up. Suffice it to say that Barentsz’ expeditions were brutal for sailors and wildlife alike.
The third expedition under Barentsz, which set sail in 1596 (the same year the first Dutch expedition reached Indonesia), resulted in even more disaster and death – this time for nearly all of the crew. Barentsz’ expedition attempted to go north around Novaya Zemlya rather than south, as if somehow this would miraculously result in a passage to Asia. But the conditions were even worse. Ice crushed the ships, forcing Barentsz and his crew to overwinter on the forbidding islands, which were never even settled by Indigenous Peoples. Once spring, if it could even be called that at these northern latitudes, came around, the crew tried to return to the Netherlands. Yet, sailing in open boats, only 12 of the men made it. Barentsz was among those who perished.
One fateful discovery did come of the third expedition. On June 17, 1596, the crew sighted craggy peaks rising out of the icy seas. This was the first European sighting of Svalbard, which the Dutch called Spitsbergen. The name comes from the Dutch “spits,” meaning “pointed,” and “bergen,” meaning mountains. The Arctic islands’ rugged topography – and, crucially, the ample whaling grounds around the archipelago – would lure Dutch whalers in for centuries. Dutch whaling finally came to an end in 1964 with, fittingly, the sale of the vessel William Barentsz II to Japan. Even though the Dutch would no longer pursue whales around the world, in the decades to come, they would seek other wares from the north.
The gas keeps flowing in
A modern Dutch landscape, spotted just outside the Port of Rotterdam. Two ships are visible on the horizon. Photo: Cryopolitics.
Some 45 minutes outside of the city of Rotterdam lies Europe’s largest port, which is also the largest port outside of Asia. The facility is hard to reach by public transportation from the city, least of all on a holiday weekend. So, my friend and I decided to head out there by Uber. As we approached the port, I was surprised to see a hill on the horizon. Later, I learned that this enormous mound was actually a pile of toxic waste like batteries and electronics. I guess Dutch people no longer have to travel so far to witness a bit of topographical drama.
I’m glad I got to glimpse this swell in the horizon because that’s about all I would be seeing of the port. Idiotically, I had neglected to read the Dutch small print on the tickets I had reserved for the boat tour of the Port of Rotterdam. My friend and I therefore failed to show up as instructed half an hour early. The boat set sail without us, leaving us to stroll on the beach under towering, whooshing windmills while staring at the ships out at sea waiting to enter the port.
We did have a chance to visit the new Portlantis visitor center, which opened last month. The five-story building brings the logistical magic of the Port of Rotterdam comes to life through dozens of virtual reality headsets. It was mildly disconcerting to see museum visitors, from parents and their children to couples, silently bobbing their heads around while standing side by side rather than interacting with one another as they might have in a less modern museum.
The Gate Terminal: Europe’s gateway to Russian LNG
The Port of Rotterdam, complete with a still-operational coal-powered fire plant. The Netherlands has ordered all such plants to cease operations by 2030. Photo: Cryopolitics.
At the Port of Rotterdam, I had been hoping to see the Gate Terminal on the Maasvlakte, near the entrance to the port. The terminal, which was opened by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix in 2011 (before she abdicated in 2013), bills itself as “Europe’s LNG port.” Its construction was motivated by declining natural gas production within Europe and the need to begin sourcing the commodity from the rest of the world, including Russia. While pipelines are fixed in place, LNG terminals are highly flexible, as they can receive gas from any exporter on Earth. This makes them more resilient to geopolitical volatility.
Five years ago, Rotterdam’s Gate Terminal received the second-ever export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Yamal LNG project. The facility, located deep in the Arctic, came online in December 2017 at the push of a button by none other than Vladimir Putin. (The first-ever shipment from Yamal LNG went to the UK’s Isle of Grain terminal.)
The Gate Terminal’s FAQ page answers the question, “Where does LNG come from?” with: “Among the countries producing LNG are Trinidad, Nigeria, Algeria, Qatar, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.”
Russia represents a glaring omission from this list. The country is the world’s fourth-largest LNG exporter – one from which Dutch exports have been increasing since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In 2024, European Union (EU) countries’ imports of Russian LNG rose 18%, amounting to over €6.3 billion. This increase has helped make up for the loss of piped gas from Russia, which the EU has tried to wean itself off of.
Moreover, since the beginning of this year, Ukraine no longer allows Russian gas to transit its territory. Much of this gas was coming from fields on the Yamal Peninsula, as the map below from e-on/Ruhrgas depicts. Other sources therefore need to be found. While Russia remains an important supplier, the U.S. and Norway have risen in recent years to become the largest exporters of natural gas to the EU.
Some of the Russian LNG arriving at the Gate Terminal gets sent through pipes to destinations in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. The rest is transshipped to other European countries. The Port of Rotterdam is an excellent hub for importing and re-exporting natural gas, along with all the other cargo it handles, because it is located right at the center of Europe, as indicated by this 2013 map from Gas LNG Europe.
Previously, Russian LNG was transshipped from the Port of Rotterdam to non-EU countries, but a new round of sanctions adopted by the EU in July 2024 halted that trade. Russian LNG has also been prohibited from being imported into “off-grid” EU import terminals, which resulted in facilities in Sweden and Finland cutting off their imports.
Entirely halting Russian LNG imports to EUrope, however, seems unfeasible. Just last week, the EU dropped the idea altogether because some member states argued that finding alternatives would be impossible. According to a report by German environmental NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the biggest importers of Russian LNG in 2024 were Belgium, France, and Spain, with the Netherlands coming fourth.
The EU has sanctioned gas from Russia’s second major LNG project, Arctic LNG 2, which still has not made any successful exports despite coming onstream in 2024. Banning Russian LNG altogether. however, might be a step too far. U.S. President Donald Trump, though, has a suggestion: he wants Europe to buy even more LNG from the U.S., which exports more of the superchilled commodity than any country on Earth.
Satellite imagery reveals the construction of the Gate Terminal, which opened in 2011 at the Port of Rotterdam. The ongoing construction of the fourth container is visible in the image from 2025. Imagery from Google Earth; animation by Cryopolitics.
The Dutch are continuing to expand their capacity to import more LNG no matter the source. In August 2023, construction at the Gate terminal began on a fourth LNG tank. Hans Coenen, a representative of the board of directors of one of the terminal’s two owners, Gasunie, explained that construction of the fourth tank, which will cost €350 million, “is necessary to compensate for the loss of Russian natural gas and to reduce the scarcity of natural gas on the European gas market.” Coenen failed to mention that the new tank may also help to bring in more Russian liquefied natural gas.
Whether walrus ivory, polar bear hides, whale blubber, or natural gas, the Dutch have been hauling Siberian goods to Europe for over four hundred years. Sadly, it is hard to think that a war will put an end to that.
A royal flush
While I may not have been able to fully take in the Port of Rotterdam, as luck would have it, I did glimpse the Dutch king and princess while walking to my hotel in Amsterdam. The King and Queen of the Netherlands had been hosting a banquet for the Sultan of Oman to celebrate 400 years of maritime ties between the two countries. The Netherlands is seeking to develop imports of liquid hydrogen, an alternative to fossil fuels, from the Arabian coastal country, which would be shipped into the Port of Amsterdam. On April 16, the Netherlands, Germany, and Oman signed an agreement to set up the world’s first liquid hydrogen corridor between ports in their three countries. This initiative suggests that the Netherlands will continue to remain at the center of ocean trade for years to come, no matter the commodities in play.
The King and Princess of the Netherlands stroll out of the Koninklijk Paleis (royal palace) after hosting the Sultan of Oman – right before a tram, seen approaching from the right, blocked my view. April 15, 2025. Photo: Cryopolitics.
