In the second half of the twentieth century, several derricks stood on and around Ameland. Not only NAM, but various other companies searched for gas on Ameland with varying degrees of success. Ameland and the NAM have quite a history together. The Dutch Petroleum Company has not had an easy time on the island all this time. Sometimes Ameland was overwhelmed by the administrative violence from above and the island accepted the towers, other times the municipality of Ameland made demands or the population protested.
Derricks, natural gas, pollution and subsidence
- Gas extraction in the Wadden area
- Derricks
- Concessions
- NAM on the Oerd
- NAM plans
- Natural gas pipeline
- Drill again
- Win longer at Ameland
Gas extraction in the Wadden area
Gas extraction has been important for the Dutch energy supply for decades. Ameland contributes to this by tolerating derricks on and around its island. Most Dutch gas comes from the Groningen field. There are also small fields under the Dutch part of the North Sea, the North Sea coastal zone and the Wadden Sea. The field under Ameland is one of them. Attitudes towards gas extraction and the use of gas have changed over the second half of the 20th and the first decades of the 21st century.
Derricks
In 1963 there were four derricks on Ameland. In 1974 there was a derrick on East Ameland. This was an exploration well. Caltex drilled between Ballum and Nes, British Petroleum had a derrick at Buren and Mobil Oil drilled on the Hò’n. There were also several drillings off the coast of Ameland.
Location in the dunes near Hollum / Source: Ameland Press Agency
Source: Theo Kiewiet
Sandbags – autumn 2018 / Source: Ameland Press Agency
Hollum
NAM drilled for natural gas in the dunes near Hollum in the 1960s. The company found it there too. It is not easy to extract the gas at that location and that is why NAM decided to close the well. The location is in the dunes with the well and a meter-high fence around it. The well could and could be opened to extract the gas, but NAM wants to remediate the old location in 2018. The concrete and asphalt slab that marks the location has been almost on the beach since January 2018; the sea and currents undermine the dunes at that location. In November 2018, NAM announced that the location would be cleared before the end of April 2019. To protect the location a little against the waves, sandbags will be placed in the autumn of 2018.
Spring tide
The erosion of the dunes at the drilling location is happening faster than Rijkswaterstaat and NAM had calculated. On January 8, 2019, the spring tide washed away part of the drilling site and took contaminated soil with it. After the spring tide, everyone worked hard to clean up the location as quickly as possible. For temporary protection, new big bags were filled, a wall of sand-filled containers was installed and a steel wall was vibrated into the beach. It accelerated the remediation work by a month.
Milling the asphalt floor / Source: Ameland Press Agency
Storm and spring tide of January 8, 2019 / Source: Ameland Press Agency
Excavating the contaminated soil / Source: Ameland Press Agency
Between Ballum and Nes
Caltex drilled in the dunes between Ballum and Nes in the 1960s. The drill went to a depth of 3000 meters, but no gas was found. However, the dunes were contaminated with drilling mud. The Zwanewater dunes are contaminated with barium, copper and lead. At that time, environmental regulations were not so strict and Caltex had permission to discharge drilling mud into the dunes. In 2009, Rijkswaterstaat started the remediation. RWS then wanted to be ready for the breeding season, but what they found was greater pollution than had been taken into account. RWS continued the remediation in 2012. A whole section of the Zwanewater dunes was excavated. According to RWS, the groundwater is not contaminated. In the 1960s, the polluted area was covered at the top with a layer of clean sand, so there has been no danger to people and animals all these years, according to the manager of the area.
East Ameland
British Petroleum drilled at Buren without success in those years and Mobil Oil took a shot at the Hò’n. That company drilled into a gas layer.
Concessions
NAM has two concessions on Ameland for the extraction of natural gas. Both fields belong to the NAM concessions in North Friesland. NAM also operates several fields above Ameland in the North Sea.
- location on West Ameland in the dunes of Hollum: this location is not in use
- location on the Oerd
- three locations northeast above Ameland
NAM on the Oerd
In January 1986, NAM started producing natural gas from the Ameland-Oost gas field. The buildings on the site, the drilling platform and the fence are more or less concealed in an artificial dune and painted in sandy yellow colors. Thirty years after the start of natural gas extraction, the Oerd appears to have subsided considerably. Instead of the predicted 9 centimeter subsidence, the salt marsh area has subsided dozens of centimeters. Part of the unique nature reserve at the eastern tip of the island is in danger of disappearing into the sea. ,It shouldn’t have happened,, the area manager said in 2019 about natural gas extraction.
NAM plans
In 2009, NAM proposed three new drilling plans:
- Ballumer bend
- Nes Noord
- Neighbors
Anti-Gas Committee
Objections come from various quarters and the Tegengas Committee organizes opponents of the three derricks on the island.
Just before Christmas 2009, NAM decided to postpone the plans. Only the Nes-Noord location is still in the picture, the other two locations encounter too many problems and resistance. Nes-Noord can possibly be tapped from the sea.
The plans will disappear in the drawer for the time being.
Natural gas pipeline
Largely invisible are the pipelines that transport gas from the Dutch offshore exploitation areas to the mainland. Supply pipelines and two natural gas pipelines run between the mainland and the Wadden Islands. The NGT natural gas pipeline passes east of Rottum through the Wadden Sea. They are not allowed to be laid in the Dutch part of the Wadden Sea. This is only allowed in exceptional cases, according to the Wadden Sea Key Planning Decision.
NGT leadership
The NGT pipeline transports natural gas from extraction platforms in the North Sea, the East Ameland location and the location north of the island. The gas from the Zuidwal exploitation site, near the bird island of Griend, is transported to the mainland by a pipeline that ends in Harlingen.
Drill again
Source: Ameland Press Agency
In 2010 and 2011, NAM drilled twice for a number of months in the North Sea just above Ameland. The towers can be seen from the beach at Buren. The platforms are about three kilometers out to sea. In 2013, drilling will take place a little further from the island in the North Sea.
Win longer at Ameland
In May 2012, NAM came up with a plan to empty the wells near Ameland, two in the North Sea and one under East Ameland, more slowly than the original plan. The NAM wants a permit until 2035 instead of the agreed 2018. This means that the platforms off the coast of Ameland will remain in place for longer.
read more
- Ameland and the love-hate with natural gas
- Ameland and its Land Subsidence
- Sustainable Wadden Islands
- Earthquake – Natural gas extraction in Groningen