By Kelly Gilblom and Fred Pals: 13 July 2017
Judge to consider demands to close Europe’s largest gas field
Groningen has contributed almost 300 billion euros to budget
What was once a blessing is now an expensive curse
Officials are also considering criminal charges against NAM executives
Ebe Treffers’s dog was antsy for hours before the boom sounded and the house began to shake, scattering dishes across the kitchen floor.
Like other residents of the Groningen region near The Netherlands’ North Sea coast, the retired art teacher was used to the subtle tremors caused by decades of extraction at Europe’s largest gas field. But nobody was prepared for the magnitude 3.6 earthquake that struck after dark on Aug. 16, 2012, assured by both state and project officials that there was nothing to fear.