The second speaker on Tuesday will be mining engineer Hans Roest, who has worked for TU Delft for 25 years, then as a special investigating officer for the State Supervision of Mines (SodM).
After the first measured severe earthquake, in 1986 near Assen, Roest got a headache. Not from the quake, but from the findings of the Drenthe States member Meent van der Sluis. It presented a report in which the link was made for the first time between gas extraction and the earthquake. “He was right that the quakes had to do with gas extraction, but his theoretical foundation was very weak.”
Van der Sluis was not taken seriously, but Roest felt it was his academic duty to investigate further. But at his employer, TU Delft, he ran into walls: “There was money from NAM for research at TU Delft, but not for research into earthquakes.” He wanted to be independent as an academic, but that led to tension at his employer.
The KNMI, which was the only Dutch institute to have seismological knowledge in the early years of the quakes, also declined to conduct further research. “While there were enough findings to worry about.” The general belief in the years from 1990 to 2012 was that the earthquakes would pose no risk to the safety of the people of Groningen.
As an investigative officer at the SSM supervisor, he himself continued to sound the alarm, especially when the tremors increased from 2007. But continuously, at various organisations, governments and the NAM, he received no complaints. Until the earthquake in Huizinge in 2012. “Nobody was awake before that.”
Also read: Facts and figures about natural gas extraction in Groningen
This article is also part of our live blog: Supervisor: all predictions about the quakes were wrong