Beneath Ameland there are sandstone layers at a depth of three kilometers where natural gas is contained in the pores of the sand grains. Various companies have drilled on the island. The Dutch Petroleum Company (NAM) is the most successful in this regard. NAM drills for gas fields and extracts the gas on behalf of the Dutch state. Ameland has a love-hate relationship with the NAM and natural gas extraction. The island benefits from the work and is at the same time afraid of the negative effects.
Hate and love for natural gas extraction on Ameland
NAM’s industrial activity on Ameland evokes mixed feelings among islanders and island visitors. Natural gas is extracted from a layer of earth hundreds of millions of years old beneath an island that received its first inhabitants barely a thousand years ago. The islanders enjoy mining in various ways and it hinders them at the same time.
Love
Employment opportunities
The NAM offers employment to various islanders. To name a few examples: an island chef cooks on the production platform and others work there as an engineer or technician . In addition, island companies are hired to carry out work so that NAM can focus on its core task: extracting natural gas. The taxi transports staff and freight companies and contractors are called in for jobs.
Pilot projects
Groundbreaking research by NAM into the effect of lamps on birds revealed that birds benefit from different light. Birds flew towards the bright light and continued to circle the oil rig until they fell exhausted into the sea. NAM now illuminates the drilling platforms less brightly. After the research, NAM did not switch to the green light, which is best for birds, because the color is less suitable for the safety of employees. Philips developed the QL lamps that spread green light, are energy efficient and cause less nuisance to birds. The QL lamps replaced the less economical and bird migration-disrupting white light. The pier at Nes on Ameland served as a pilot project.
Source: Ameland Press Agency
Construction of roads
NAM contributes to the construction of roads on Ameland. The sometimes heavy transports to and from the AmelandOost location necessitated new road construction. Island motorists also benefit.
Sponsoring events
The NAM sponsors various island events with major contributions or advertisements in the program booklet. NAM also regularly supports publications on Ameland.
Contributions
NAM has regularly contributed to the purchase of expensive equipment. For example, schools were given computers.
Heat
Ameland has a natural gas network and all households can heat and cook with natural gas. The island is not connected to the natural gas supply on its own soil.
In 1980, Gasbedrijf Noord-Oost Friesland laid a gas pipeline through the Wadden Sea and the islanders could be connected to the natural gas network.
Hate
Source: Ameland Press Agency
Disfigurement
The drilling platforms and production platforms pollute the horizon. The fenced closed borehole in the dunes near Hollum disfigures the landscape.
Land subsidence
The extraction of natural gas under Ameland triggers a subsidence of the ground. Land subsidence changes the biotope of plants and animals.
Earthquakes
Since 1986, earthquakes caused by gas extraction have occurred regularly in the Northern Netherlands. Most take place in the Groningen field, but occasionally the bottom of the Wadden Sea also vibrates. On August 9, 2013, 1.8 on the Richter scale was measured at a depth of 3 kilometers below the bottom of the Wadden Sea near Ameland. On January 31, 2015, another earthquake was measured at the bottom of the Wadden Sea. A force of 1.7 on the Richter scale was measured northeast of Vierhuizen and there was also one near Delfzijl in the Eems estuary. That is exactly on the edge of the Groningen natural gas field.
Pollution
Previous drillings have resulted in pollution of a dune area.
The Zwanewater dunes were polluted in the 1960s by Caltex, which did an exploratory drilling there. The soil contains toxic barium, lead and copper. The environmental regulations at that time were less strict than today: Caltex was allowed to simply let the drilling fluid run into the dunes.
Rijkswaterstaat reports that the groundwater is not contaminated. The layer was covered at the top with clean sand, so there has been no danger to humans and animals all these years .
Action
Some action groups have committed themselves in word and deed to oppose industrial activities on and around the island.
Source: Ameland Press Agency
Action group GLC No
In 1981, the GLC-No Committee was active. GLC-Nee fights against drilling from land on Ameland. The NAM wants to install a derrick on East Ameland from which to tap into a layer of gas. The gas under East Ameland is gas that the whole of the Netherlands can burn for a month. That is not worth an industrial activity of 25 years, according to GLC-Nee. The committee chalks GLC-No on the road between Nes and Ballum and holds fun promotions with GLC-no cakes that are distributed to NAM guests and directors. The derrick will ultimately not
be placed
on land but in the sea off the coast. Prankster
In 2009, Prankster protested against the plan to install a 75-meter high derrick in the dunes near Buren. The group made a mini-tower and placed it at the pier in Nes. ,Stop! Gas drilling on Ameland!, and , Don’t pull the stop from Ameland, the group posted on signs. In 2009,
the Amelands Tegengas Committee
fought against the NAM’s plans to install three derricks on the island: at Ballum, Nes and Buren. Ultimately, NAM changes the plans, arguing that there are changed insights into the returns of the three fields. The costs compared to the benefits are too high.
Source: Ameland Press Agency
Pilot Flame Committee Pilot
Flame Committee is a continuation of the Ameland s Tegengas Committee, which gave pushback in 2009 when the NAM wanted to drill near Ballum, Nes and Buren. The Pilot Flame Committee meets as soon as there is something going on in the field of gas extraction and derricks. Waakvlam closely follows the activities of NAM and takes action when they deem it necessary.
They wrote an opinion on NAM’s plan (2012) to extend the extraction of natural gas under Ameland until 2035 instead of the agreed year of 2018. NAM nevertheless received approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in August 2013 to win longer at Ameland.
Earthquakes
Legend
A . March 21, 2005 – 1.4 Richter
B. August 9, 2013 – 1.8 Richter
read more
- Ameland and its Land Subsidence
- Prankster Ameland – a group of pranksters on an island
- Earthquake – Natural gas extraction in Groningen
- Shale gas – natural gas in shales
- Gas extraction – gas extraction in the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site