Over the next fifteen years, NAM will be dismantling and cleaning up locations throughout the Netherlands. In Drenthe this concerns Vries, Coevorden and Emmen. The work continues 24/7. Various measures have therefore been taken to ensure that local residents experience as little inconvenience as possible. There are special access routes for freight and work traffic, and an electric machine is used that makes less noise.
“Permanent is really permanent,” says Emile Luchtmeijer. He is a member of the NAM board and is responsible for cleaning up the locations. “In principle, you can always open the well again, but the way we close the wells makes it very complicated. That’s why I don’t expect that to happen again. That doesn’t make sense here either, because the field is virtually empty.”
These six wells will be closed at the end of November, but the work will not be finished yet. Next year, NAM will continue to remediate the land and make it tidy again, so that it can be returned to the owner from whom it was rented.
By closing gas extraction sites and dismantling them, NAM expects that the risk of earthquakes will decrease in the coming years.