The Council of State approved the gas extraction plan on Wednesday approved which allows the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) to extract gas from eleven small gas fields in and around Drenthe. Several municipalities had submitted objections to the plan, together with the Stop Gas Extraction Marsdijk Nu working group and the Nature and Environment Federation Drenthe.
It concerns a decision from 2018 that was approved by then Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate, Eric Wiebes. The ‘Westerveld extraction plan’ stated that gas will be extracted from small fields in the municipalities of Assen, Aa and Hunze, Noordenveld, Tynaarlo, Midden-Drenthe, Leek and Ooststellingwerf until the end of 2028 at the latest.
In an interim ruling in 2020, the Council of State ruled that the minister had insufficiently mapped out the possible risks of earthquakes. Wiebes was then given four months to improve the plan.
Risks
According to the Council, the decision is now sufficiently substantiated. The minister has laid down, among other things, in the regulations that houses and buildings in the vicinity of the gas fields are examined within one year by ‘an expert party’. According to the municipal councils, the working group and the environmental foundation, the changes to the plan are not yet sufficient. They argue that the risks of ground vibrations from gas extraction are still underestimated.
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At the beginning of this year, the ministry announced that there will probably be twice as much gas from the large gas field in Groningen is needed as expected. Gas extraction from the Groningen field must stop in 2028 at the latest. This does not apply to the small gas fields, such as the eleven gas fields in the north of the Netherlands in the decree. The Netherlands has about 175 of these small fields.
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