At around 7:45 on Wednesday morning, 25 climate activists chained themselves to the GasTerra headquarters building on the Stationsweg in the city of Groningen.
Translation by Traci White
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the activists are part of a group called Extinction Rebellion (XR). The entrance to the building, which is located on the Stationsweg, has been blocked by the activists who are holding banners and have crossed out one of the business’s signs reading “less CO2” with “Get rid of all CO2”. The police are currently at the scene.
A tweet about the protest on the Extinction Rebellion account says that 25 activists are involved, and the group objects to the consequences of ongoing natural gas extraction in the province: “Gas extraction caused earthquakes and destroyed family life in Groningen.”
25 Rebels of #ExtinctionRebellion with lock-on chained themselves to #GasTerra, company owned by @Shell & @ExxonMobil_NL. Gasextraction caused earthquakes and destroyed family life in #Groningen. Become a #RebelforLife. End the ecocrisis. pic.twitter.com/joeavzEVyz
— xrgroningen (@xrgroningen) April 24, 2019
GasTerra is focused on the trade and supply of natural gas and was created in 2005 after its parent company, Gasunie, split into two separate organizations. Gasunie coordinated that natural gas infrastructure and transport within the Netherlands. GasTerra is owned by Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and the Dutch government.
Photo source: Screenshot from Extinction Rebellion video