Paying off the debt of honor to Groningen will probably be a gesture with little substance, argues Antonie Kerstholt, economist and lawyer from Groningen.
An important conclusion contained in the report Groningers above gas of the parliamentary committee of inquiry into gas extraction in Groningen is the moral obligation of repaying a debt of honor to all duped Groningen residents.
A nice gesture to all Groningen residents, but probably also a gesture with little content. After all, a moral obligation is not legally enforceable and will have to be fulfilled voluntarily by the government and the oil companies.
Very optimistic
As a duped Groningen citizen you have to be very optimistic to expect that the aforementioned debt of honor will be paid voluntarily due to the results of this survey.
After all, it was not for nothing that Prime Minister Rutte was very displeased when he learned not so long ago that the Shell headquarters would formally move to London. Shell will therefore also be more difficult to hold legally accountable for compliance with agreements made about compensation for damage in the Groningen gas file. These damage payments are first fully pre-financed by the government after an agreement has been made about this with Shell.
The risk for the government that it will not be able to collect advanced damage payments, which must be borne by Shell, has increased sharply due to the relocation of the head office to London. So that will already cause enough headaches.
Lucrative business and revenue model
The report makes it crystal clear that gas extraction has been set up and operated from the outset as a joint project of the state, Shell and Exxonmobile as a very lucrative business and earnings model for all parties. The two oil companies, Shell and Exxonmobile, cleverly put forward the joint venture Nederlandse Aardoliemaatschappij (NAM) as a formal discussion partner for the government and later the duped Groningen residents. With the lawyers of Legal Services of Shell as crafty directors in the background of this lucrative project.
It is therefore sad that the duped Groningen residents and the government initially regarded NAM as the most important party in the settlement of the earthquake damage. These were managed by Shell’s Legal Services based on a damage minimization model. This was to prevent the amount of damage to be claimed by the victims from becoming too large.
Litigation
It was smarter to use the legal instruments of litigating the victims and deliberately delaying them. The aim was to be able to limit the actual damage to be paid in this way and to keep it within the previously set internal company objectives of maximum damage amounts to be paid.
Prime Minister Rutte can be blamed for a lot in this dossier. But not his naiveté in the mores of big business, an industry he enjoys flirting with as a former employee of a Unilever business unit. Power games in the (international) business world are simply not the same as power games in Dutch politics.
Size too big
The most important conclusion that I, as a Groningen citizen, draw from the Groningen gas file is unfortunately not mentioned in the report. Shell and Exxonmobile were just a size too big for the Dutch state!