NPO Radio 1 – Interview with Gertjan Plets in “5 Days… about oil extraction in Rotterdam”
‘The Netherlands has committed to reducing CO2 emissions to combat global warming with the Climate Agreement. It’s quite surprising when you hear that the Netherlands is also an oil state. “However, the Netherlands can indeed be called that,” says historian and cultural anthropologist Gertjan Plets in 5 Days. He is affiliated with Utrecht University and specializes in oil and gas extraction areas.’
Listen to the interview (in Dutch): https://www.nporadio1.nl/nieuws/binnenland/ae90f4cd-9f7b-4c2f-9960-92decb3b71a3/is-nederland-een-oliestaat
500 billion euros
“There is still debate in academic circles because the percentages of oil profits in GDP cannot be compared to those of a state like Saudi Arabia. But the Netherlands has around 175 small and medium-sized oil and gas fields, and since World War II, 500 billion euros have gone to taxes as pure profit,” says Plets. “We all benefit from that, especially in the Randstad. Roads and universities are funded with it. We would have been much less wealthy as a country without those oil euros.”
Coincidence
Oil extraction has a long history. Besides herbs and spices, the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM) already brought shiploads of oil to Pernis for refining. It was a great surprise when, in 1938, it was discovered by chance that the Netherlands also has oil in the ground. During an exhibition about the Dutch East Indies, Shell wanted to show how oil drilling works and accidentally found traces of oil with a test drilling of a pumpjack. “The oil industry of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo then moved to the Netherlands and led to the discovery of many small fields here,” says Plets.
Similarities between the Netherlands and Russia
Since 2009, as a Belgian historian, Gertjan Plets has researched the changing public opinion in Russia about gas and oil extraction and how big companies try to influence it. “In the 1980s, oil was not popular in the Soviet Union, but this changed significantly when I was there.” Upon returning to the Netherlands in 2016, Plets saw many similarities with Gazprom’s approach.
Deprived areas
In Siberia and the Netherlands, extraction mainly occurs in somewhat poorer areas. In 2009, there were plans to implement the American ‘hydraulic fracking’ in the Noordoostpolder and Brabant, but oil companies encountered a well-organized and slightly richer society that successfully kept oil extraction at bay with the help of academics.
Public opinion Other similarities were mainly in the campaigns. For instance, the Polygoon newsreel from 1948 portrayed oil extraction in Coevorden with romantic music as our national pride. This was necessary because, in the 1940s and 1950s, oil extraction was not welcomed with open arms. Disturbing reports from Long Beach, California, about earthquakes and subsidence even led to parliamentary questions and angry opinion pieces in the newspapers. With the promotion of oil commercials and premiums to switch to gas heaters, oil was received much more positively in the 1960s and 1970s.
Downward spiral
In the early 2000s, public opinion rapidly declined. First, the scandals of Shell in low-wage countries, then the Iraq war, which was suspected to be solely about oil, and finally, the film An Inconvenient Truth, which clearly connected fossil fuels to climate change. Now, oil drilling is kept more discreet. Plets visited many Dutch oil fields and saw that they are mostly hidden behind bushes and walls. “Since the earthquakes, it is no longer prominently displayed.”
Canadian companies
The oil sector still tries to frame extraction as a necessary evil to fund the green energy transition, but the negative sentiment seems unstoppable. Now the NAM is for sale, and the question is whether we should be happy about it. “The anonymous Canadian companies are tough businesses where ‘the money’ truly rules.” These companies squeeze the fields to the last drop.
Citizen collectives
Fortunately, Plets also sees bright spots: “What I find hopeful is that citizen collectives are becoming increasingly successful in stopping permits. We have the example of Charlois, where the municipality is also litigating, but also Twente, where citizens stopped wastewater injection, and Schoonebeek, where citizens now receive 1 euro per barrel of oil. If 60 million barrels are extracted, that’s quite a lot of money for such a small community.”