News and information on Shell Plc
NL TIMES
Shell: Gas field in Groningen must be completely closed this year, in light of earthquakes
SUNDAY, 26 MARCH 2023
The gas field in Groningen must be completely closed this year, said the CEO of Shell Netherlands, Marjan van Loon. Currently, the gas field is still supplying minimal amounts of gas to keep the wells usable, but she doesn’t think that’s necessary. “It can and must be done, so the field has to be closed,” Van Loon said on the TV program WNL Op Zondag.
DutchNews.nl
Damning report slams state, oil companies for Groningen gas failures
Gas extraction has become an ‘unprecedented system failure’ and both the public and private sector have failed in their duties, Van der Lee said.
Ministers were not properly informed and that meant that MPs could not fulfill their role as guardians of the public interest. The damage, both material and mental, suffered by locals was consistently underestimated and the maximalisation of profit was the guiding force.
“Gas extraction in Groningen was so successful and lucrative for the Dutch government, Shell and Exxon Mobil that they hardly took any notion of the long-term risks and the ever-clearer signs of the detrimental effects for the people in Groningen…” REUTERS
Dutch gov’t, Shell and Exxon ignored Groningen risks for years, inquiry finds
“These are hard and painful conclusions,” Rutte told a news conference. “They make clear there is a lot to do to help the region and to hopefully restore trust.”
The government will take time provide a full response to the report, he said without indicating how long that would take.
A statement from NAM director Johan Atema said: “It is clear that we need to have a better eye for the society in which we work. It is up to us to show that we as a company have learned from this.”
OILPRICE.COM
Netherlands To Shut Down Europe’s Largest Gas Field
The Dutch government plans to close the Groningen gas field this year despite Europe’s precarious supply position. Groningen is the largest gas field in Europe.
The field is dangerous, a government official from the Hague told the Financial Times, and the government has no plans to boost production from it.
“We won’t open up more because of the safety issues,” Hans Vijbrief told the FT. “It is politically totally unviable. But apart from that, I’m not going to do it because it means that you increase the chances of earthquakes, which I don’t want to be responsible for.”
Another departing Shell leader seeking redemption?
THE GRONINGEN SCANDAL
BvB now admits that Shell should have pulled out of the controversial earthquake-blighted Groningen project operated by NAM – a Shell-Exxon joint venture company.
According to Reuters: “A damning report in 2015 from the independent Dutch Safety Board had accused the government and the field’s operators of ignoring the threat of earthquakes linked to the field for years.”
As regular visitors to this website know, we have been drawing attention to the Groningen scandal for many years. Thousands of properties have been damaged. As a consequence, Dutch prosecutors are pursuing litigation against NAM. Tens of thousands of Groningen residents are eligible for compensation for earthquake damage.
Dutch prosecutors to pursue pollution case against Shell-Exxon gas venture
A spokesperson for NAM said the company would respond later on Wednesday.
Reuters reported last month that Shell And ExxonMobil have put their 50-50 venture up for sale, with expected proceeds of over $1 billion.
NAM started producing natural gas in 1963 following the discovery of the giant Groningen field, which was a major source of gas for the Netherlands and Europe for decades.
But extraction has been almost completely wound down in the past 10 years as tremors blamed on drilling damaged buildings and prompted protests by residents and campaigners.
REUTERS
Shell should have quit Groningen gas project in Netherlands earlier -CEO
“We had to continually ask what makes sense,” as production was dialled back to levels at which NAM made little to no profit, Van Beurden told lawmakers.
“What made sense for Shell was to quit. In any other country we would have stopped this operation. But in the Netherlands that was impossible because the Netherlands was dependent on Groningen gas.”
A damning report in 2015 from the independent Dutch Safety Board had accused the government and the field’s operators of ignoring the threat of earthquakes linked to the field for years. As vast amounts of gas were removed from under the province since 1963, the ground sank and settled above empty pockets, triggering quakes.
NL TIMES
Dutch state earned €363.7 billion through Groningen gas extraction
The remaining 64.7 billion euros in profit went to the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), the operator of the Groningen gas field. NAM paid the amount out as dividends to its shareholders – Shell and ExxonMobil.
Shell released the figures for the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into gas extraction in Groningen. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate confirmed the profit division to FD.
The figures show that the government received 85 percent of the profit from the Groningen field – quite a bit higher than the about 70% income paid for other concessions. Aad Correlje, associate professor and energy expert at the Delft University of Technology, called that remarkable. “We knew that the government took a large part of the profit, but not that the difference with the gas companies’ profit was that big,” he said to the newspaper.
NL TIMES
Tens of thousands to get compensation for Groningen earthquakes
Tens of thousands of Groningen residents are still eligible for compensation for earthquake damage. This is reported by the Groningen Institute for Mining Damage (IMG), which will offer a one-time fixed payment of 5,000 euros as compensation to people who, in the past, received little or no restitution. In total, the institute estimates that it will cost an additional 100 million euros more than the hundreds of millions already spent on compensation for physical damage.
DutchNews.nl
Groningen gas: former mining director says gas firms taken more seriously than supervisor
Sept 1, 2022
The economic affairs minister took gas companies more seriously than government safety supervisors, according to evidence at the six-week enquiry into what has gone wrong in Groningen.
This week the enquiry restarted into how decades of gas extraction caused ever more earthquakes and damage for local people, and why compensation schemes have failed so badly. It will run until October 14.
The Guardian
Fears of new quakes in Dutch gas field as energy crisis bites
The province of Groningen is home to a vast gas field and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry into the links between gas extraction and the hundreds of earthquakes and tremors that have traumatised residents.
Groningen’s inhabitants have been affected by the giant gas field for the last few decades. About 80% of houses in villages such as Overschild are being demolished and rebuilt because of earthquake damage. More than 150,000 Groningen residents have suffered earthquake damage to their properties in the last decade, and 10,000 now face stress-related health problems.
Reuters
Dutch govt to pay Shell, Exxon $8.28 billion for filling Norg gas storage
AMSTERDAM, April 1 (Reuters) – The Dutch government on Friday said it expected to compensate NAM, a joint venture between Shell RDSa.L and Exxon XOM.N, around 7.5 billion euros ($8.3 billion) for filling the Norg gas facility the past three years, with most of the costs coming this year due to the current high price of gas.
In a statement, the Economic Affairs Ministry cited “the current historic high gas prices” and the exact amount would be determined at the end of the gas year, which runs through to Sept. 30. In all NAM will have purchased 8.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas on the open market to fill the facility over the past three years.
Reuters
Dutch watchdog says gas production at Groningen remains unsafe
AMSTERDAM, March 8 (Reuters) – A Dutch watchdog said on Tuesday that gas production from Groningen field remained a safety threat, as Europe races to find other sources of the fuel to wean itself off Russian supplies in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Dutch government has been winding down Groningen for years because production triggers earthquakes in the area and it plans to cease output entirely by October. But the government has not ruled out a change course in an emergency.
NL TIMESNo less than 83 percent of those polled thought the Netherlands should stop importing Russian gas. More than six in 10 Groningen residents support further gas mining in their province, up to a maximum of 12 billion cubic meters per year.
The State Supervision of Mines (SodM) has always said that gas extraction can be relatively safe up to that maximum if all houses in Groningen are reinforced. However, SodM announced in February that it wanted to halt gas extraction in Groningen.
“From my perspective on the safety of the people in Groningen, raising gas production now is really a bad idea,” said Theodor Kockelkoren, inspector-general with the State Supervision of Mines (SodM), at the time.
NETHERLAND NEWS LIVE
Shell wants to buy off liability from NAM in Groningen
Shell wants to buy off liability for the earthquakes in Groningen in one go. That is what president-director Marjan van Loon of Shell Netherlands says in an interview with the Financieele Dagblad (FD). Shell is a half shareholder of the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), the company that carries out the drilling in Groningen. The other half is owned by ExxonMobil.
By buying off the liability, the settlement of damage caused by the earthquakes can be accelerated, according to Van Loon. The parties have been disagreeing for years about who will pay for the damage, which means that the settlement process is slow.
NL TIMES
State mining supervisor wants to halt gas extraction in Groningen
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2022 – 07:00It is “really very undesirable” to extract more natural gas in Groningen, said Theodor Kockelkoren, inspector-general with the State Supervision of Mines…
Gas extraction in Groningen has been causing earthquakes for years, damaging houses. Kockelkoren said in the broadcast that two things are necessary to improve safety in the area: “Reduce gas production to zero as quickly as possible, and strengthen the houses that need it. From my perspective on the safety of the people in Groningen, raising gas production now is really a bad idea.”
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
This is not a Shell website. That fact should be abundantly plain from the overall content of this home page and our sister Shell focussed websites, including shellnazihistory.com. Click on the Disclaimer link at top of this page for more information. You Can Be Sure Shell does not endorse or approve of this website. There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations. It is an entirely free to use website drawing attention to the negative side of Shell while also publishing positive news about the company. The Shell logo image with the white text used on this website, as per the above example, is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous. It can be found here on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Our shellenergy.website republishes Shell Energy customer complaints posted on Trustpilot where there is an ample supply. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our non-profit websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
