Senay Boztas AMSTERDAM: 22 Nov 2015: Sunday Times
THE Dutch are being forced to earthquake-proof their dykes after a spate of tremors blamed on the effects of extracting gas from the vast field running beneath the country.
Although Holland lies far from any big geological fault lines, half a century of exploitation of the Groningen field – Europe’s largest – is blamed for causing about 50 earthquakes a year.
The government is considering how much it should reduce lucrative gas production, which has been a mainstay of the Dutch economy throughout the financial crisis.
Last week the country’s highest administrative court ordered Henk Kamp, the economic affairs minister, to cut gas production to
27bn cubic metres this year – 6bn less than he had proposed – despite the estimated cost to the treasury of €lbn (£700m).
“The financial considerations are secondary,” said Heleen Haverkort, a spokeswoman at the ministry for economic affairs. “The focus of the government is to ensure the safety of the people in Groningen.”
While the politicians argue, authorities are repairing thousands of collapsing buildings and homes and planning to strengthen those in danger. Some 800 chimneys in Groningen, the capital of the eponymous province, are being replaced with safer aluminium flues.
The Supermarket chain Albert Heijn opened its first earthquake-proof store last week – with a rubber foundation and a wooden, not concrete, frame – in the nearby town of Loppersum.
The engineering firm Grontmij will deliver plans next February for Holland’s first earthquake-proof sea dyke, to be built between Eemshaven and Delfzijl.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
