ABSTRACT
After the theoretical chapters and before the summary and reflection in the conclusion, this chapter offers an example of one possible performative reading of energy security. The illustration in this chapter analyses the Dutch natural gas extraction, which since the late 1980s has been witness to an increasing number of ever stronger gasquakes (induced earthquakes due to gas extraction). This paper offers a security analysis of the accompanying debate on the material consequences and organization of the gas extraction between the threatened local population, the knowledge institutes analysing the gasquakes, and the government and extraction industry. This chapter studies how these parties make sense of the gasquakes through a combination of securitization theory and the flat relationality offered by new materialism, which forces the two conflicting securitization claims to be analysed in their local sociotechnical and material context. The resulting analysis shows how the gas debate is structured by a shared security of supply understanding, but that this understanding is questioned by the local population on its safety and cost implications. However, it took 25 years for their claims to be accepted and the security of supply understanding shifted to a focus on minimal extraction volumes. This acceptance can only be explained through a self-reinforcing combination of security claims, actual material events, increasing measurements (following security calls), shifting value judgements and increasing audience acceptance (creating additional speech actors).
