The Canadian energy company, which has amassed around 800,000 acres of undeveloped land in the Netherlands, already utilises 14 gas fields in the Netherlands
Translated by Thomas Ansell
As reported in the Omrop Fryslân, gas producer Vermilion wants to bore into four gas fields in a large area between Garyp, Opeinde, and Grou- all of which are in Friesland, to the south of the city of Leeuwarden.
The company has made three new applications for gas drilling to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, which would allow the extraction of more than 1.3 Million NM3 of gas. Many of the potential new fields overlap, and some cover the location of other, already extracted gas fields. Therefore Minister Eric Wiebes wants to see what the total likely subsidence is before granting permission. The company, which had a total amount of assets in 2018 of 8.271 Billion US Dollars, does not think that significant subsidence will occur, and has also said that it thinks the risk of more earthquakes caused by its extraction is low.
Vermilion estimates that the subsidence in all four fields will be less than one centimetre, and that the risk of earthquakes occuring is “negligible”. If there is damage caused, the corporation feels that it will likely be “cosmetic”, with “a small chance of light constructive damage”. Their calculations have allegedly been approved by the State Supervision of Mines, and the TNO (Dutch national scientific research agency).
On October 30, an information-meeting will occur, organised through the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate. During the meeting it will be explained why attention has been turned to the small gas fields, what the process of extraction is and how it proceeds, and what the possible ricks, damage, and claims handling works. For the “Leeuwarden-101” field, people can then submit their views, whilst for the other fields, people and stakeholders can lodge objections.
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