Why the Twente unrest?
This comes directly from a presentation that the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij made in September for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK). Slide 7 of the document, which was noticed this week by Stichting Stop Afvalwater Twente on Mijnbouwvergunningen.nl, states that the NAM wants to inject waste water into empty Twente gas fields again in 2023 and 2024.
This injection has been stopped since the end of last year, but the NAM announced at the beginning of this year that it wanted to use the Twente fields for another three years. After discussions later between the ministry and the company, however, the idea arose in Twente that injecting would be a thing of the past.
How does NAM end up in Twente?
The source of the wastewater is further north, in Schoonebeek. The oil bubble near this village in Drenthe was the reason Shell and Esso founded the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) in 1947. Since 2011, the production water that comes up with the oil extraction in Schoonebeek, including chemicals, has been pumped through old pipelines and wells in the bottom of Twente.
Until December of last year, when NAM stopped injecting of its own accord. Not because of the parliamentary majority for termination or the massive resistance of residents like Herman Finkers, who fear soil disturbance and pollution. Not even after the injection in Twente was placed under stricter supervision by the State Supervision of Mines (SODM) when it turned out that one of the outer tubes had a crack and monitoring left something to be desired.
Only when it turned out at the end of last year that there were too high concentrations of the chemical substance toluene in the water, did the NAM stop the injection. The NAM often exceeded the permit with too high concentrations of toluene, but because this poses no direct risk to people and the environment, the SODM let the gas company do it. Once under strict supervision, this was no longer possible. “From then on we said: every violation is a ticket,” said a SODM spokesperson. The NAM then stopped injecting.
Can NAM just start again?
Judging by the ministry’s unusual response via Twitter on Tuesday, this does not appear to be the case. ‘The wastewater injection in Twente cannot be resumed’, EZK tweeted after reporting in the newspaper Tubantia about NAM’s plans. ‘Because the permit expires on 1 January, so starting up is not possible then.’
The Ministry of Economic Affairs refers to the permit for an installation that must filter the excess of toluene from the water, so that it can still enter the Twente subsurface. In a short response, the NAM only wants to say that without this permit, ‘there is no need to restart the water injection in Twente’. The company can apply for a new permit, but will not comment on whether it will do so.
What does the ministry want?
Due to the lack of support, they at EZK are not happy if NAM starts injecting water in Twente again. But the question is what State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief (Mining) can do if NAM continues. The company has a perpetual concession to spray water under Twente and the question is on what grounds the company can then be denied a permit that would make this process cleaner. The ministry had no answer on Wednesday.
Why does it have to be in Twente?
The Schoonebeek field, which is profitable due to the high oil price, can only be restarted if the production water, 3 million liters per day, can go somewhere. The company says that this is currently only possible in Twente. Because of the sensitivities there, the company wants to store the water closer to the Schoonebeek field. But the NAM presentation shows that they will need until sometime in 2024 to make empty fields there ready for use.
What do they find in Drenthe?
Because of all the oil prosperity that came with the extraction in Schoonebeek, it is one of the few places in the Netherlands where NAM is popular. But when it was announced in January that the wastewater will remain in Drenthe in a few years’ time, responses from residents and administrators showed that the love for NAM there too is as fragile as a discarded gas pipeline.