Curating gasscapes after extraction: materiality, petromodernity and politics in the case of the Groningen natural gas field

This paper theorises an omnipresent but overlooked type of cultural heritage: gasscapes. Gasscapes are cultural landscapes scarred by contested histories and the impacts of gas extraction. Building on Carola Hein’s concept of the petroleumscape, we develop gasscapes as a framework to analyse the material, political and temporal specificities of gas extraction in relation to heritage-making. We unpack gasscapes as an important type of heritage through the example of the Groningen gasscape, Europe’s largest land-based conventional natural gas field. Following the cessation of extraction in 2024, a range of local heritage initiatives have emerged, underscoring the urgency of curating gasscapes in the aftermath of extraction. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and ongoing engagement with grassroots heritage initiatives, the paper explores how the rapid decommissioning of extraction sites produces tensions between erasure and commemoration. We argue that, unlike most visibly scarred post-industrial landscapes, the gasscape is characterised by ephemerality, dispersed and invisible infrastructures, and ongoing socio-environmental harm, which complicates its heritagisation.