It’s like a fairy-tale: “Pieter Omtzigt and the gas”. In the meantime the Dutch gas is produced without taking into account any human conditions of the people living in Groningen where the gas is gotten from the ground. I have already written about that – in Dutch, but there is Google Website Translate on your right side in the menu. Groningen happens to be the place where I spent my childhood and I still love the province.
Dutch gas sales: price and EU regulations
Independent Member of Parliament PIeter Omtzigt, who always sees to find secret scandals and gets them discussed in the Parliament, found another issue. The Dutch gas is probably sold to Germany and Belgium, possibly also to other countries – who knows – but at what price? And where does the money of this sale go to? After months and months asking and asking again, he finally got a first answer from Prime Minister Mark Rutte. We produce 19 billion cube meters of gas and we don’t sell 17 billion of it, but everything and it is done by a company called GasTerra. Any information about it is so-called “confidential”, like everything if you ask Rutte. And if it isn’t confidential, top secret or classified, he doesn’t have an active memory of it. So far the democratic process in the Netherlands.
Today he also finally answered to Mr. Omtzigt that the gas is being sold at the day market price in the EU. That means somewhere between €1.50 and €2.00 per cubic meter, so we are talking here about roughly €30 billion of which no-one knows what is done with it. Omtzigt didn’t receive an answer to that question, but another thing the PM said, was this: “You know there is this agreement in the EU to sell your own local products elsewhere in the EU. We aren’t allowed to sell our own gas in our own country”. Well, I happened to have done some research to that question a couple of weeks ago and I found out that isn’t true. The EU wants us to export all our local products, put them on a pile and then sell them all together to anyone against the excessively high day prices, but the agreement was never reached. I remember we already discussed this in the ’90s when I was still studying. There is no obligation to sell your products to the rest of the EU. There is a right to sell them elsewherea in the EU.
Here are more links to EU websites that state the same thing: you have the right to export your goods, provided that they meet the EU requirements, but nowhere any obligation is discussed or stated:
- Business.gov.nl: Exporting Dutch goods inside the EU.
- Europa.eu: Selling products in the EU.
Usage of gas per year in the Netherlands
Next thing we heard the Dutch Prime Minister say: “We use 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year in the Netherlands”. I first thought he’d know it better than I, but …. not even that is correct. According to Worldometer we use 14 billion cubic meters per year, not 40. So it’s not true what he also says, namely that the Netherlands are dependent from imported gas. No! We can just stop the contracts with Germany and Belgium, that apparently don’t exist, but that he did talk about a few weeks ago and that the whole media was reproducing without any research. Omtzigt has been guessing and trying to get information about the sales for months now. This tweet is from August and tells about high Dutch gas prices of €3 per cubic meter. Omtzigt is guessing, because the government doesn’t want to tell him the correct price.
Also please note that IF the Dutch “gas molecules” – as Rutte says it – go to the internal market of the EU, then there are no long-term contracts between the Netherlands and Germany or Belgium! Since it goes to that market pile of products and nobody knows where it will end up. It goes to the first buyer, not specifically to Germany a d Belgium. So the story that was sold to us that there would be alleged contracts that we can’t ever ever ever break, is also apparently a lie. What else will we still learn about the simple question what happens to the Groningen gas after it comes out of the ground?
In België – NL exporteert gas naar België – was het gisteren mogelijk om een contract of te sluiten voor 1,60 euro per kuub gas. In NL ligt de prijs rond de 3 euro.
Hoe komt dat?
(6)— Pieter Omtzigt (@PieterOmtzigt) August 15, 2022
Apart from the selling prices of the Dutch gas, of which we don’t profit as a population – we pay more for gas than any other country, we are more than capable of living with our own gas. The obligation within the EU to sell gas abroad doesn’t exist, so next question is:
are there long-term contracts with Belgium and Germany OR does the gas go to some place called “market” somewhere in the EU and is it sold to anyone who is the first buyer?
Why can’t we know the answer to this and why doesn’t our Prime Minister inform us about this issue? Did he buy some secret weapon or so with the profits from the Dutch gas? Did he do a make-over for the whole Cabinet or what? Did the government spend it to buy more expensive gas from who-knows-where? The other blundering and coke-addict Minister, Hugo de Jonge who ‘did’ the Ministry of Health until a year ago, already lost €5 billion during the Covid crisis and we get no answer to the question where that money went. Is there a new scandal now, not about 5 but about 30 billion? With the present “Minister” of Finances Sigrid Kaag you never know what happens to the money in this country. She doesn’t have a clue about finance and I think even I would have done a better job with only one year Economy at school and a D for a grade. Really!
Untold Times is an independent crowdfunded news website by Anastasía Vassiliou, a handicapped Greek journalist who writes meaningful articles about many issues. The Dutch state has deprived her and her sons without any reason from all medical help, ID papers and income, while preventing her from earning any income herself. The only thing she can still do, is write, but she needs support to spread her work and to be able to continue! Thank you very much for the donations that are coming in, but do help Anastasía Vassiliou to become finally known after so many years, by supporting her work with a monthly or once-only contribution. This is how you donate:
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