The ‘Wadden zee’ is one of the largest tide regions in the world and a crossroads of many different migration routes of millions of different birds. But there is also around 20 billion cubic meters of gas under the Wadden sea. The largest untapped gas field in the Netherlands.
Since 1994 the Dutch are planning to win the natural gas from underneath the Wadden sea. By so called diagonal drilling from land. Test drillings are needed to get more experience and to gather extra facts and figures. This is not easy to do, as the Wadden Sea is a protected nature reserve. Because of its rich biodiversity and unique tidal flats, the sea is a Natura 2000 protected area.
The Dutch minister of economic affairs Hans Weijers already gave the The Dutch Mineral Oil Company (NAM) permission to do the test drilling. Now the NAM is not allowed anymore.
Without the test drilling the actual gas-field cannot be exploited. The diagonal drilling is risky and the NAM needs to know for sure if it will work or not trough these test drillings.
Activities: propose subject , research, set-up and planning, accompany filming.