UK goes full speed ahead on shale gas fracking.

[Treacle Toes]

 

[Treacle Toes]

A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water

Fracking boom sucks away precious water from beneath the ground, leaving cattle dead, farms bone-dry and people thirsty

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water

 

[Mr.Bishie]

The Tory peer who said parts of the “desolate” north were suitable for fracking chairs a shadowy organisation that helps energy companies network with politicians, ambassadors and civil servants, an investigation by Corporate Watch, revealed in the Mirror, has found. Lord Howell, the father-in-law of George Osborne, chairs the Windsor Energy Group (WEG), whose sponsors and supporters include BP, Shell and British Gas.

http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4960

 

[ferrelhadley]

The British countryside could be dotted with hundreds of naked flames several metres high after the head of Britain's biggest fracking company warned that any production of shale gas would involve “flaring off” leakages.

Andrew Austin, whose IGas company's shale gas licences cover George Osborne's Tatton constituency in Cheshire, said flaring was necessary because it was extremely bad for the environment to allow methane leakages to escape into the atmosphere.
“Flaring is the normal thing in standard oil fields, that's why when you fly across the North Sea you can see it. Flaring or not flaring is not the point, it is industry practice,” Mr Austin told The Independent.
“It is far better to flare leaked gas than to let it vent into the atmosphere. Methane emissions are 24 times more potent a greenhouse gas than C02,” he added.
Other fracking companies, such as Cuadrilla, chaired by former BP chief executive Lord Browne, are also expected to flare off any leakages relating to their shale gas activities in the UK.

http://www.independent.co.uk/enviro...oss-the-uk-soon--fracking-flares-8609940.html

Flaring from the Bakken in ND is so widespread it can be seen from space in one of the more desolate parts of the US.

What is going to kill fracking in large parts of the UK is property prices. With 40% saying they dont want fracking near them and the likelyhood of flaring, it will make houses near fracking sites harder to sell. Making home owners i.e. local voters, much less likely to endorse it.

 

[coley]

http://www.independent.co.uk/enviro...oss-the-uk-soon--fracking-flares-8609940.html

Flaring from the Bakken in ND is so widespread it can be seen from space in one of the more desolate parts of the US.

What is going to kill fracking in large parts of the UK is property prices. With 40% saying they dont want fracking near them and the likelyhood of flaring, it will make houses near fracking sites harder to sell. Making home owners i.e. local voters, much less likely to endorse it.

Your not usually this naive, you really think people's/ local authorities objections will be taken into consideration?

 

[existentialist]

Your not usually this naive, you really think people's/ local authorities objections will be taken into consideration?

Once the connection between fracking and property values enters the common consciousness, I think it will have a profound effect - the property owning middle classes are core Tory support, no matter how brazenly Tories suck on the fat corporate tit: business yields money, but business doesn't vote.

 

[kabbes]

The Tory party are split wide open on this. There are a lot of serious divisions when it comes to wanting to support big business on the one hand but conserving the leafy suburbs on the other. This comes directly from conversations I have had with Tory MPs, Tory county councillors and Tory activists. They are all watching each other, trying to work out what they even want to happen. It could go any which way from here.

Ironically, things like Balcombe are actually helping Tories to solidify a pro-fracking position, because it is giving them a common enemy. They can all agree that hippies, enviro-warriors and lefties should be buried haw haw haw. The party is far more ideologically conflicted when it comes to dealing with groups tackling things through the existing legal structures. Such groups talk establishment language and have establishment figures backing them up. It is in dealing with these situations that the party is starting a brand new civil war against itself.

 

[Sprocket.]

We could burn Tories.

 

[existentialist]

We could burn Tories.

They're too wet.

 

[kabbes]

They're too wet.

The one I met with last night is dangerously full of gases.

 

[Sprocket.]

Oh I forgot you have to dry them out like peat first, plenty of lampposts.

 

[ferrelhadley]

Your not usually this naive, you really think people's/ local authorities objections will be taken into consideration?

The local authorities permission is not 'taken into account'. It is one of the approving agencies.

West Sussex County Council is one of three agencies involved in granting the necessary approvals to explore and produce oil. The others are the Environment Agency and the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

The Health and Safety Executive is also involved, ensuring that oil operations can take place safely.
West Sussex County Council monitors activities on the site for any potential breaches of planning conditions or issues of environmental concern. In addition, our officers carry out announced and unannounced site visits to ensure that conditions of the planning permission are being adhered to.
If a feasible oil/gas reserve is found, Cuadrilla will need to submit a new planning application to West Sussex County Council to go into production. This will be subject to a completely fresh public consultation process.

http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=33315

Members will hear Cuadrilla's application to remain at the site for a maximum of a further six months and for an amendment to the height of the approved flare at the site. A 'ground flare' was originally approved, but Cuadrilla now wants to install a 14-metre high flare to meet the Environment Agency's requirements.

How many per square mile again?

 

[kabbes]

Don't get me started on local authority application processes. Utter joke.

 

[Dr Jon]

The Darker Shades Of Shale

 

[coley]

The Darker Shades Of Shale

Liked is a poor response to such a damning article,

 

[Dr Jon]

Liked is a poor response to such a damning article,

Yeah.
From that link:

Shale is not about energy, it's about speculation

This is the money-juggling parasites' last gasp before the whole pyramid scheme collapses, burying them - and us - in the wreckage.

 

[coley]

Yeah.
From that link:

This is the money-juggling parasites' last gasp before the whole pyramid scheme collapses, burying them - and us - in the wreckage.

Hopefully not us though Poland seems to have had its fingers burned.

 

[ferrelhadley]

Fracking well blows out on the Eagle Ford.

http://www.texassharon.com/2013/08/29/blowout-at-eog-site-in-eagle-ford-shale/

http://www.ksat.com/news/video-oil-...oria/-/478452/21699648/-/mmj7i2z/-/index.html

The video is worth a watch.

 

[ddraig]

more straight out propaganda!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-24026014
nothing about danger underground etc, no counter argument

A senior government minister has thrown his weight behind the exploitation of shale gas.
It is suggested that south Wales has huge reserves that could be tapped by a process called fracking.
Protestors in the Vale of Glamorgan have already made clear their opposition to exploiting gas reserves.
The supporters of shale gas promise it will bring cheaper fuel bills and energy self sufficiency.
BBC Wales environment correspondent Iolo ap Dafydd spoke to Wales Today presenter Jamie Owen about the implications of Energy Secretary Ed Davey's comments to the Royal Society.

 

[equationgirl]

Bringing cheaper bills my arse. What it will bring is more profits for the energy companies.

 

[Dr Jon]

Bringing cheaper bills my arse. What it will bring is more profits for the energy companies.

are you sure about that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas#Economics

 

[equationgirl]

are you sure about that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas#Economics

One, the energy companies wouldn't be doing the drilling unless they thought it was profitable, although how profitable remains to be seen certainly.

Two, I doubt savings will be passed onto consumers simply because the energy companies have no history of doing so, preferring keep the profit for themselves.

 

[Dr Jon]

I'm sure they think thought it'll be profitable. Check my earlier link

A waste? Absolutely. Polluting? You bet. But there's no profit in shale gas anymore

 

[Crispy]

Two, I doubt savings will be passed onto consumers simply because the energy companies have no history of doing so, preferring keep the profit for themselves.

Shale gas is only profitable *because* prices are high.

 

[gosub]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ustrial-massacre-sparked-by-energy-costs.html

 

[ferrelhadley]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10295045/Brussels-fears-European-industrial-massacre-sparked-by-energy-costs.html

Freeport LNG signs gas export deals

Toshiba of Japan and SK of Korea, two industrial groups, have each contracted to use Freeport to liquefy 2.2m tonnes of LNG per year, which at prevailing Asian prices is worth about $1.6bn.

A third plant at Lake Charles, owned by BG Group of the UK and the Energy Transfer group of the US, received that permit in August. The next significant project in line for a decision is Cove Point in Maryland, backed by Dominion, the US energy group.
With permission now granted for plants to export a total of 5.6bn cubic feet of gas per day to markets anywhere in the world, the US is approaching the point where sceptics about exports have suggested the Department of Energy should begin to put the brakes on awarding permits.
Large energy users worry that overseas demand will push up the domestic price of gas.

US gas looks highly competitive in Asian markets. Toshiba and the other exporters will be able to buy gas at US benchmark Henry Hub prices, today about $3.60 per million British thermal units, and sell it at Asian prices, today about $15 per mBTU.
Even allowing for a rise in the Henry Hub price, as anticipated in the futures market, and liquefaction and transport costs of perhaps $6-$8 per mBTU, the margins on exported gas seem likely to be attractive.

As the export market grows price will go up.

 

[camouflage]

One, the energy companies wouldn't be doing the drilling unless they thought it was profitable, although how profitable remains to be seen certainly.

This is no test against the formation of speculative bubbles.

 

[gosub]

http://www.texassharon.com/2013/09/...t-on-the-fracking-flood-disaster-in-colorado/

 

[ddraig]

"send them an economic signal" massive tossers

Shale Drillers Offered Water Cheaper Than U.K. Residents
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...offered-water-cheaper-than-u-k-residents.html

A reduction would help make the technique to extract hydrocarbon reserves more profitable in Britain, where municipal water rates often are two-thirds higher than in the U.S., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hydraulic fracturing uses high volumes of pressurized water mixed with chemicals and sand to crack open underground deposits.

“You send them an economic signal, and they will respond,” Ian O’Gara, U.K. head of new energy at the consulting firm Accenture Plc (ACN), said in an interview. “You can’t allow the water price to be such that it hinders development.”

 

[brogdale]

Anything that can be described as a "headache" for the corporate despoilers sounds good to me.....even if their political puppets change the law to assist their 'rape', this should slow the feckers down....

http://blogs.channel4.com/tom-clarke-on-science/homeowners-legal-bid-fracking/538

English common law doesn’t entitle landowners to the mineral rights beneath their home – oil and gas companies lease extraction rights from the Crown Estate.

However, Greenpeace lawyers argue that the ground itself does belong to the landowner. For that reason, they claim that a company drilling under private land is trespassing unless they are given permission by the owner.

That could be a big problem for fracking companies like Cuadrilla and Celtique Energy who have interests in Lancashire and Sussex.

Amusing that it was that greedy bastard, Dodi's dad, who made this all possible.