The PGK
Our board
The board of the PGK consists of six volunteers from academia and industry that have a background in petroleum geology. They can be contacted by sending a message through the "contact" menu above.
Bas van der Es
Shell
Chairman
Suzanne Castelein
Dana Petroleum
Vice Chairman
Wiebe van Driel
Xodus
Treasurer
Shirley van Heck
Secretary
Geert-Jan Vis
TNO
Excursion Secretary
Raik Bachmann
SGS Horizon
Webmaster
PGK Monument 'de Mient'
On 4 July 1988 the Petroleum Geological Circle unveiled a monument to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the discovery of oil in the Netherlands and the 10th Anniversary of the Circle. The monument is not officially a monument but a 'street-object'.
In 1938, just before the war, an exhibition was held on The Netherlands Indees. At the exhibition the 'Bataafse Oliemaatschappij', now part of Royal Dutch Shell, was carrying out a drilling demonstration with a rig that would be shipped to The Netherlands Indees later. In those days geologists believed the Tertiary to be very thick, but Cretaceous rocks with traces of oil were penetrated at a depth of 500m. This caused a hazardous situation because no blow-out preventer had been installed and the drilling was stopped. There was no concession permit in place. Commercial follow-up drilling had to wait until after World War II.
Drilling rig in 1938 at the Mient (photo archive Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschapij)
In 1988, when PGK had taken the initiative to raise a monument, they needed approval of municipal councilor (‘wethouder’) Duin Lunel. Being a left-wing representative within the City Council of The Hague, Duin Lunel had little affinity with Shell. It was within Shell that the PGK was founded and meetings in the early years were held at the Shell Research Laboratory in Rijswijk. Not to upset him, it was decided that the inscription on the monument would refer to the Bataafse Oliemaatschappij only. Duin Lunel signed the permit and on 4 July the monument was opened in the presence of many Shell representatives.
Opening of the PGK Monument de Mient, 4 July 1988 (photo Evert van de Graaff)
Despite the absence of the Shell name on the monument, activists stained the monument with paint a few days later. A day later the local paper headlined that "..anti-Shell activists had stained the Shell monument...", a message that of course did not fail to reach municipal councilor Duin Lunel...
The monument can be visited at the de Mient near the Kamperfoeliestraat close to the cemetery and the petting zoo in the Hague.
Museon published this booklet for an exhibition entitled "Oil underneath the Hague". It also discusses monument "de Mient". You can download it by clicking on this link: Booklet De Mient