Gas fracking industry warned off Herefordshire

COUNTY councillors have made it clear they do not want to see fracking ever take place in Herefordshire. Professional consultant Kirsten Berry told this week’s general scrutiny committee meeting that there had been important changes to the plan. 

“One of the key changes is in relation to unconventional hydrocarbons, fracking as it is commonly known,” she said.

“When we prepared the draft plan, national policy was very much recognising the benefits of using fracking and onshore oil and gas for transition to low carbon. “But ministerial written statement last year that intention has been removed. “I’m aware of the resolutions in Herefordshire that are against fracking and recognising from the evidence we have it looks very unlikely that you would actually experience an application for working on unconventional hydrocarbons in Herefordshire.

“So, in recognising the update in the national position we’ve taken that policy out altogether.

Councillor William Wilding said he thought a policy which said the county would never have fracking would be positive.

“We should have a policy which absolutely says no to fracking.”

However, officers told the meeting a policy specifically banning fracking could make their plan legally unsound.

Councillors alarmed over change to fracking policy

THE COUNCIL has suspended its draft local development consultation, with immediate effect, after it emerged a section intended to strongly oppose local fracking had been changed without councillors’ knowledge or consent.
Enquiries are currently underway as to how the careful wording that had previously been agreed unanimously by the elected representatives was changed in the strategy document, which had been out for public consultation.

Continue reading Councillors alarmed over change to fracking policy

Environmentalists criticise funding for NI drilling study

Environmentalists have criticised a Northern Ireland Executive department for making £75,000 available to fund a consultants’ report on the pros and cons of petroleum exploration.
This includes the controversial practice of fracking.

The Economy Department is putting the contract out to tender and hopes the work will start in the autumn.

It will look at the “economic, environmental and societal” impacts of onshore drilling for oil and gas.

Fracking opponents say the contract should not be awarded.

In May 2019, a public consultation was held following a fresh licence application by exploration company Tamboran to evaluate shale gas in the south west of Northern Ireland.

The application, and a second one for conventional oil and gas, are currently under consideration.

‘Robust evidence’

Shale gas is extracted using the controversial practice of fracking, where gas-bearing rock is fractured using a high pressure solution of water, sand and chemicals to bring the gas to the surface.

A previous attempt by the company at an exploratory well faced significant community opposition amid pollution and health concerns.

The tender documents say the consultants’ report will be used to “formulate evidence-based policy options and provide ministers with the information needed to make fully informed decisions about future petroleum development.”

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Anti-fracking campaigner says communities needs protection following Department’s research request

 

A leading anti-fracking campaigner has called the Department for the Economy’s research into the impacts of oil and gas production as a last “hurrah” for the industry. 

Tom White has also said that the communities of Fermanagh still need protection against fracking. The Department is seeking to procure research into the economic, societal and environmental impacts of future onshore petroleum exploration and production, including Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG), in Northern Ireland, including fracking.

“Many in Fermanagh thought the spectre of ‘fracking’ had long since disappeared but it seems to me that we’re preparing the way for one last ‘hurrah’ for this industry,” said Tom White of Belcoo Frack Free.

Continue reading Anti-fracking campaigner says communities needs protection following Department’s research request

Funding in fracking firm Cuadrilla to be slashed – forecast

A major cut in investment in the shale gas company, Cuadrilla, is likely in the coming months, its owner has predicted.

The Australian mining group, AJ Lucas, forecast investment in Cuadrilla would be reduced by 90% in the financial year to June 2021, compared with the previous 12 months.

The AJ Lucas annual report, published on 28 August 2020, blamed the UK government moratorium on fracking in England, imposed 10 months ago.

As a result of the moratorium, the report said Cuadrilla had “scaled back” its shale exploration operations in the UK”. Operating costs and overheads had been “very significantly reduced”, it said.

Cuadrilla’s funding requirement has been significantly reduced, largely as a result of reduced staffing and operations. Cuadrilla will engage in limited analysis of prospective areas of its licences, in preparation for activity when the moratorium is lifted.

“A small team currently operates in the UK, maintaining Cuadrilla’s UK licences and statutory obligations.”

Fracking at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site in Lancashire was suspended by regulators a year ago, on August bank holiday Monday 2019. The company’s operations caused the UK’s strongest fracking-induced earthquake, measuring 2.9ML.

By then, Cuadrilla had fracked just seven of the more than 40 planned stages of the PNR2 well, the second of four planned horizontal boreholes at the site.

Continue reading Funding in fracking firm Cuadrilla to be slashed – forecast

Department for the Economy seeking research into impacts of oil and gas production.

 

The Department for the Economy is seeking to procure research into the economic, societal and environmental impacts of future onshore petroleum exploration and production, including Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG), in Northern Ireland, including fracking.

The £75,000 worth of research will analyse relevant contemporary qualitative and quantitative information and research across economic, social and environmental issues with focus on the interaction between these factors in determining the viability of onshore petroleum and, separately, UOG development.

Policy makers will use the research to formulate evidence based policy options and provide Ministers with the information required to make fully informed decisions about future petroleum development.The potential for UOG in Northern Ireland is greatest in the parts of Fermanagh that constitute the Lough Allen Basin.

In May 2019, Tamboran Resources (UK) submitted a petroleum licence application which could eventually lead to fracking and which covered an area of 608 square kilometres.

Continue reading Department for the Economy seeking research into impacts of oil and gas production.

Aurora Energy drops application to drill at Altcar Moss in Lancashire

A British fracking company has vowed to challenge the effective ban on shale gas projects after withdrawing its application for two wells in Lancashire.

Aurora Energy Resources blamed the government’s “de facto ban on shale gas activity” for its decision to drop an application to frack at Altcar Moss in west Lancashire.

The Aberdeen-based gas company has reignited an industry row with the government over its decision late last year to follow the Scottish government’s lead by ending fracking in England.

Ian Roche, the managing director of Aurora, said it was “unsurprising” that council officers in Lancashire felt unable to make a decision on the application, which it submitted months before the government imposed a fracking moritorium in November.

Continue reading Aurora Energy drops application to drill at Altcar Moss in Lancashire

Fracking at greater depths can lead to ten times the risk of earthquakes, study finds

Fracking operations that drill deeper into the earth can make triggering an earthquake almost ten times more likely, according to a new study. The report, published this week in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), is based on data from more than 1,300 single well sites across Oklahoma.

The study found that in one rock layer, the likelihood that fracking triggered seismic activity increased from 5 to 50 per cent with increasingly deeper well operations, from 0.9 to 3.4 miles (1.5 to 5.5km).

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Lancashire MP welcomes statement that the Government will no longer support planning consent for fracking

A Lancashire MP has welcomed a statement from a government minister which further closes the door on fracking.

Friday, 17th July 2020, 12:15 pm
Following Minister Kwasi Kwarteng’s comments last month that ‘fracking is over’, West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper wrote to him seeking confirmation that this was Government’s policy.
He responded: “On the basis of the current scientific evidence, the Government has confirmed that it will take a presumption against issuing any further Hydraulic Fracturing Consents in England, which are required before hydraulic fracturing operations can take place.”
She said: “The Minister has now accepted what I and anti-fracking campaigners have been saying for many years, and has admitted that fracking is over. The evidence that fracking can be undertaken safely is not available”.
I am pleased to have received this assurance and that Government will take a presumption against issuing any further Hydraulic FThe moratorium will remain in place ‘unless compelling new evidence’ can be produced to address concerns around seismicity.
racturing Consents.”
She added: “This is fantastic news for my constituents in West Lancashire where there were plans to frack at a site in Altcar and to the county council who took the brave decision to refuse the initial application.”
Maureen Mills from Frack Free Lancashire said: “Despite the moratorium on fracking consents and withdrawal of government support for fracking, Aurora are continuing with their application which is likely to be determined by LCC in August or September. Thereby they continue to put residents through the trauma of the threat to our health, the environment, our countryside and its agricultural heritage.”               
The future of Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site remains uncertain as planning permission to frack at the site ran out in November 2019 and if no new permission is granted the site must return to farm land by August 2023.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

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