Only the threat of criminal proceedings would force the oil companies Shell and Exxon to produce less gas in Groningen after the severe earthquake in 2012. A retired criminal court advised action group Groninger Soil Movement (GBB) to use heavy artillery.

Public hearings by the Groningen parliamentary committee of inquiry into natural gas production in recent weeks have shown the impact of this advice. The committee concluded these hearings yesterday.

The GBB initially filed a complaint on behalf of 4,000 members, but in vain: the public prosecutor saw no reason to prosecute NAM. The people of Groningen then applied to the court in Arnhem to force the public prosecutor’s office to carry out such a criminal investigation.

In April 2017, the court ruled in her favour. Prosecutors should investigate whether gas exploration company NAM, a subsidiary of Shell and Exxon with the state as a co-shareholder, endangered Groningers. The case is still pending and has cost GBB two tonnes in legal fees, but the impact has been maximum.

game changer

Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Shell, calls this criminal case a “game changer”. His company was suddenly accused of endangering people’s lives by extracting gas. His employees could be prosecuted for it personally. Shell and Exxon informed the Ministry of Economic Affairs that they wanted to stop gas production in Groningen.

They only wanted to continue if the state imposed a production obligation on them, which assumed liability and thus the risk of criminal prosecution. Every other gas field in the world would be shut down if victory turned out to be uncertain, said both Exxon’s Rolf de Jong and Shell’s Van Beurden. But they also realized that it was impossible to stop because Dutch households, hospitals and much of the industry depend on Groninger gas.

No rush

It was one of the scariest issues to come up at the public hearings. By then, the picture was that in 2018, former Economy Minister Wiebes had single-handedly decided to end gas production in Groningen in 2030.

This was inevitable because the state mine regulator determined at the time that gas production might have to be stopped altogether in order to limit the risk of further earthquakes. In addition, the reinforcement operation, the reinforcement of unsafe houses, got completely out of control. Many more houses had to be upgraded than the ministry wanted and the gas production company NAM said was necessary.

The hearings also revealed that the cabinet was in no hurry to accept the oil companies’ motion. They feared that Shell and Exxon would take the opportunity to change historic profit-sharing arrangements as well. The two multinationals and the state share the gas revenues, with most of the profit (90 percent) going to the state. These are agreements that were made when gas production began in the early 1960s.

Record production 2013

In 2012, the strongest earthquake to date occurred in Huizinge with a magnitude of 3.6. The state mining supervisory authority then advised to limit gas production in Groningen as soon as possible. Instead, a record amount was pulled from the ground in the following year, around 54 billion cubic meters. The committee wants to know who commissioned it.

The Gröningers were furious when this number became known in January 2014. It led to a breach of trust that has not been resolved to this day, Loppersum’s former mayor, Albert Rodenboog, told the committee.

The interrogations did not reveal who was responsible for the decision. This additional production also came as a surprise to former ministers Kamp (economic affairs) and minister Dijsselbloem (finance), they told the committee.

Disappointing production

Kamp has always told the house that the extra gas was needed because of a cold winter and disappointing production from the small fields. But after having a reconstruction done, he realized that wasn’t true. He never shared this knowledge with the House of Representatives.

Dijsselbloem said he hopes the committee will uncover how this happened. A year later, he wanted to increase production even further than the Ministry of Economics had planned. The additional benefits that would result came in handy at the time because of the cutbacks.

The public hearings are now closed. 69 people were interviewed over a period of seven weeks. The committee will present its conclusions in spring 2023.