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The Texan and Dutch Gas: Kicking Off The European Energy Revolution

by Douglass Stewart & Elaine Madsen

211 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-2107; ISBN 1-4251-0350-2; US$16.76, C$19.27, EUR13.77, £9.64

In 1960 an immense gas field is discovered in the Netherlands. What to do? Esso sends a man with the right vision to kick off an energy revolution.

About the Book

Shell, operator of a Dutch exploration company, NAM, a joint 50/50 company with Esso, discovers the immense Groningen natural gas field in the Netherlands in 1960. Worried that their oil markets will be hurt Esso sends an engineer, Douglass Stewart, to the Netherlands to assess the situation. He confirms reserves are enormous and finds that Shell hopes to sell the gas at low prices to electric power plants, but has committed all natural gas to the Dutch State Gas Company NAM has to obtain a Producing Concession and there are no pipelines to deliver the gas.

Stewart forms a team with two Esso Dutch technicians and an American economist. The team proposes a whole new concept. The gas should be considered a "premium fuel" that could be delivered to households and selected industry if the Dutch city town gas systems are converated to use natural gas direct. Surplus gas could be exported at a high price. This would maximize the gas value, bring clean efficient fuel to the people, improve the environment and bring vastly increased revenue to the Dutch Government. The team proposes that Shell and Esso build the pipelines and market the gas to the cities and industries. The companies have to reach agreement with the Dutch Government and later go through tough negotiations with entrenched coal gas distributors in surrounding countries.

The book gives a behind the scenes look at people who participated in the negotiations with the Dutch Government that led to the formation of Gasunie and the internal ups and downs of relations between Shell and Esso. It reveals corporate maneuvering, intrigue, disappointments and successes, particularly with the regard to the export effort that put Shell and Esso in the gas business in Northern Europe.

About the Author

Douglass Stewart studied engineering and creative writing at the University of Oklahoma, graduating with a Master of Petroleum Science in 1947. After 25 years with Exxon as an engineer and executive he formed DMS Oil Company with oil and gas interests throughout the United States.. An avid diver and traveler he has visited over ninety countries and now lives in Florida.

Elaine Madsen is an Emmy Award winning writer/director whose documentary Better Than It Has to Be aired on both PBS and NBC. She is a published poet, was the Books Editor for a cultural arts magazine in Chicago and is Coordinator for the playwright/director unit of the Actors Studio West in Los Angeles. In addition to her arts interest she is an independent communications consultant for diverse institutional clients.

Excerpts