This April 2015 video from the USA says about itself:
Oklahoma links earthquakes to oil and gas industry wastewater
There has been a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma in recent years. Some observers have suggested the rise of oil and gas drilling is responsible. The state’s government, however, hasn’t acknowledged that link until now. Gwen Ifill talks to Joe Wertz of StateImpact Oklahoma about the connection.
Read more here.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has been conducting criminal investigations for months into the extraction of gas from smaller fields in the Netherlands. The research is said to focus on the Canadian Vermilion corporation, which in the village of Diever, eg, achieved more than three times the maximum permitted production quantity, according to a joint study by regional broadcsasting organisations RTV Noord, RTV Oost, RTV Drenthe and Omrop Fryslân.
The OM confirms that a criminal investigation is ongoing, but does not say whether it concerns Vermilion. “We can only report that we are investigating something if suspects are aware of it. Otherwise, they would read in the newspaper that they have been designated as suspects and that is not decent”, says a spokesperson.
How about when the OM suspects an unemployed hungry person of stealing a loaf of bread? I have the uncomfortable feeling that then, the Public Prosecution Service would not be so ‘decent’. As that unemployed hungry person would not not be a powerful multinational corporation.
Local residents are afraid of earthquakes and subsidence. “The judge in The Hague has already said that there is no reason to think that the risks with a small gas field are smaller than with the Groningen field“, says Alie Eiting from Diever.
A little further on, on the border of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, residents wonder what the accelerated gas extraction in the vicinity of their houses means. “Publicly available figures on the internet have already shown that the companies are extracting more gas than is permitted in the license”, says Jeanette van der Velde of the Gas Drenthe, Overijssel, Friesland (GasDrOvF) foundation. “For the sake of clarity, those publicly accessible figures come from the gas corporations themselves.”
Wiebes boosts production
Gas corporations are obliged to draw up a production plan for all fields that they operate. If the minister agrees, then he will also formulate the conditions. Those conditions, such as a maximum production quantity, are included in the environmental permit.
Because gas extraction in the Groningen field is being slowed down, [right-wing VVD party] Minister Wiebes has issued several permits last year for smaller fields in the north of the country. He increases production there. Yesterday, members of the Lower House of Parliament Henk Nijboer (PvdA) and Sandra Beckerman (SP) said that they are going to question Minister Wiebes about this.
Leaks
The OM does not only investigate production from smaller fields. There is also an investigation into the NAM
joint venture of Shell and Exxon corporations
for pollution in Collendoorn (Hardenberg local authority) and Farmsum (Groningen). In January this year there was a spill in Collendoorn. Chemical substances have also leaked into the soil in Farmsum.
USA: Virginia Tech scientists have found that in regions where oilfield wastewater disposal is widespread — and where injected water has a higher density than deep naturally occurring fluids — earthquakes are getting deeper at the same rate as the wastewater sinks. Perhaps more critically, the research team of geoscientists found that the percentage of high-magnitude earthquakes increases with depth, and may create — although fewer in number — greater magnitude earthquakes years after injection rates decline or stop altogether: here.
This June 2019 video is from De Onlanden nature reserve in Drenthe province in the Netherlands.
It is about a female stoat hunting on a bicycle track.
This May 2019 video is about a reed warbler singing in De Onlanden nature reserve in Drenthe province in the Netherlands.
This May 2019 video is about three glossy ibises in nature reserve De Onlanden in Drenthe province in the Netherlands.
They seem to be two parents and their (smaller, less glossy) youngster.
This 7 March 2019 video shows great cormorants at their nests.
A. Snijder made this video in Drenthe province in the Netherlands.
This 23 November 2016 Dutch Drenthe province regional TV video says about itself (translated):
Unrest among residents of Vries village because of natural gas extraction
VRIES- “We are afraid of Groningen scenes“, says a Vries resident. He is worried now that the NAM oil and gas company
The NAM, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij, Dutch Oil Corporation, is a joint venture between the Shell and Exxon oil and gas corporations. Their gas extraction in Groningen province causes earthquakes, causing much material and health damage.
has announced that it will extract natural gas through a new well in an area that lies north of Assen.
This concern is shared by Armand Jennekens of the D66 party in Tynaarlo.
The local authority including Vries.
He fears a soil subsidence of 20 centimeters. “We are now emptying the gas field with the result that the total pressure will stop.”
Gas field Vries-Zuid
Natural gas has been extracted in the Vries-South gas field since the 1970s. A new well was drilled a year and a half ago to get the last 10 percent out of the field. That natural gas area runs from north Assen to Donderen. In the forty years that natural gas has already been extracted, the soil below Vries was lowered by 8 centimeters. …
Worried
At the fishmonger’s in Vries, gas extraction is the talk of the day. Residents are afraid of Groningen scenes. “I feel that gas is being extracted at all costs. We have to revolt.” And: “I think it really scares me by now.”
Protest
Armand Jennekens of D66 in Tynaarlo, together with the D66 faction of the House of Representatives, wants to stop gas extraction. Tynaarlo municipality is also protesting.
D66, a usually pro Big Business party (though not as anti-environment as the VVD), after that video was made, joined a four party right-wing government coalition, with just a one seat majority in the Dutch parliament.
The VVD is the biggest party in the coalition. They are a pro Big Business party, with close links to Shell and other fossil fuel corporations. So, I am not sure that at the national level D66 will now oppose the Vries gas extraction, because of the coalition.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today, about Drenthe province:
Drenthe VVD politicians angry about gas extraction
VVD members in Drenthe are protesting against the recent gas extraction decision by Minister Wiebes. The minister, himself a member of the VVD, recently determined that the NAM can drill gas in small fields in North and Central Drenthe, among other places.
In an open letter to Wiebes and to the VVD in the House of Representatives, all twelve VVD municipal council caucuses in Drenthe demand that the decision be reconsidered. The council members emphasize that there is a lot of unrest among the residents. According to the letter writers, the residents will get a fair chance of earthquakes and thus of damage to their homes.
If the extraction would still have to continue, then the letter writers want the same damage protocol as in Groningen.
Many people in Groningen say the damage protocol is not enough.
A similar NAM gas extraction issue is near Monster town in South Holland province.
Bommelerwaard against Vermilion Energy gas extraction: here.
