The NAM wants to return part of the oil revenues to Schoonebeek. That is what NAM board member Simon Vroemen says in the TV Drenthe program De Staat van Drenthe.
At the beginning of next month, NAM will apply for a permit to pump polluted wastewater, which is released during the extraction of oil, back into an empty gas field under Schoonebeek. This so that oil production can start again.
New in this process is the division of benefits and burdens. In short; Schoonebeek and the municipality of Coevorden should also benefit from the oil revenues. Councilors in the municipality of Coevorden advocate 20 percent of those revenues.
“I cannot yet say exactly how much money will go to the residents,” explains Simon Vroemen of NAM. “Last Thursday we had the very first conversation with the aldermen of economic affairs and the deputy about that contribution.” Vroemen cannot yet name any amounts. “I hope that very nice things can happen in Schoonebeek and Coevorden. It will be a lot of money, but it is not up to me to make a statement about that now.”
So how much money from the oil proceeds will then go back to the municipality of Coevorden has not yet been negotiated. However, the government and NAM will contribute.
Reinder Hoekstra of the Nature and Environmental Federation Drenthe and Henk Vredeveld of the action group Stop Afvalwater Schoonebeek think it is too early to talk about money now. “Then it seems as if you can go ahead, we first have to answer the question whether we want to continue with the oil extraction, with the injections and only then can we talk about financial compensation. I want to prevent the NAM from mirrors and beads and hopes that they can go their own way.”
Bert Bouwmeester, chairman of the care table – a table in which various parties, including local residents, talk about NAM’s plans – thinks it is important that, if there is a contribution, it also leads to an improvement of the Schoonebeek area. “We think it is important that it is also recognizable for Schoonebekers and the surrounding area,” says Bouwmeester.