The hearings of the parliamentary committee of inquiry in The Hague continued on Wednesday with NAM researcher Jan van Elk (2009-present). After the Huizinge quake in 2012, with a magnitude of 3.6, the strongest to date, NAM itself started a major investigation into the relationship between gas extraction and earthquakes in the region. Van Elk: “We lacked knowledge.”
That research showed that earthquakes would only occur later in time, if gas would be extracted from the Groningen field more slowly. “That would have given us more room to do more research,” said Van Elk on Wednesday. But more gas was extracted in the year after Huizinge. “At that time, NAM wanted to produce the field empty, that was not up for discussion.”
Van Elk says that that choice was not with NAM. “The responsibility lay with GasTerra and the minister”. The trading company GasTerra and former minister Henk Kamp (Economic Affairs, VVD) formally decided on the level of gas extraction. But gas winner NAM did not go against that decision, said Van Elk. “The NAM remained passive in this.”
In retrospect that should have been different, said van Elk. “The NAM should have immediately reduced production to show that we were taking it seriously.”
This article is also part of our live blog: Former chairman of the GBB residents’ association: ‘This is not going to work out’