The oil field under Schoonebeek could become a gold mine for the village. This has not yet caused great excitement among the residents. “It would be nice if children could swim longer.”
It is quiet at noon at the shopping center at De Pallert. The life-size yes-man on the square reveals what made the village known throughout the Netherlands: oil extraction. On Monday, State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief announced that the village will benefit if oil extraction is restarted.
Dear sum
For every barrel of oil, 1 euro goes to the village, he said, as compensation for the fact that the waste water now goes into the ground at Schoonebeek. Given the amount of oil that is still in the ground, the village with just under 5,000 inhabitants could ultimately benefit from it as much as 45 million euros.
Bernard Otto (67) does not really understand why oil extraction around the village is so controversial. He himself lives just across the border in Emlichheim and there the yes-men are nodding enthusiastically. Nobody there is concerned about the waste water, Otto believes. “I worked in the oil industry for a long time. As a lawyer at Shell. Let’s just continue with the oil extraction.”
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Roos Juliana (55) has not yet heard of the multi-million dollar rain that is hanging over her village. She knows a destination for the money: elderly care. “I am a volunteer at De Zonnebloem. We set everything up. For example, we read the newspaper to people who have become visually impaired. We organize meeting afternoons and occasionally visit people.”
Unlike Bernard Otto, she is not completely confident about the safety of oil extraction. “I lived in Hoogezand for four years before I came here, so I saw up close the earthquake damage caused by gas extraction. We don’t want that here.”
Bert Roelofs (83), retired teacher, has just come from the florist, because his wife is celebrating her 81st birthday (“81 roses was a bit far, so I only got 18 roses”). “I have lived here since 1968, so I know that NAM has always meant a lot to the village.” Even in the early years of oil extraction, the oil company regularly made a significant contribution to improving village life.
Rain of oil drops
Things also sometimes went wrong with oil extraction, such as in 1976 when a valve broke and the village was covered in a rain of oil drops. But at the time the reactions were quite laconic. “I understand that young people are now more critical of the consequences,” says Roelofs. Still, he doesn’t believe wastewater should be such a big problem.
But where should those millions go now? “I am thinking about nature restoration in this area,” says Roelofs. “We must be careful with our planet.”
‘Not to the municipality’
“In any case, the money should not go to the municipality,” says a lady who wishes to remain anonymous. “He does everything to make Emmen more beautiful, but forgets about us.” She cites cuts at the De Slagen swimming pool as an example. “Children now have too little time to swim, it would be nice if that could be reversed.”
According to the lady, there is a lack of public transport in the village during the entire weekend. Postman Henri states that there is no bus running on Sundays. “That is a tragedy, it would be nice if they reversed that.”
Shouldn’t oil money be used to make homes more sustainable and thus become less dependent on fossil fuels? Henri: “I see that there are already a lot of solar panels on houses. And in addition, many houses are already insulated.”