Fracking and the Environment: Exploration licenses granted to search for shale gas in Lough Allen area

[PaddyJoe]

TWO COMPANIES have been granted licences to explore an area in Lough Allen where it is thought there may be large reserves of natural gas.
The Lough Allen Natural Gas Company (Langco) and Australian-based Tamboran Resources have been given onshore petroleum licences to explore the area which takes in parts of Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon, Cavan and Fermanagh.

Langco believes there is 9.4 trillion cubic sq ft of gas or the energy equivalent of 1.5 billion barrels of oil in the area. This has a notional value of €94 billion at existing prices and could be considerably more by the time gas could be extracted from the ground.
The company’s managing director, Dr Martin Keeley, cautioned against premature expectations.
He said the only thing certain was that there was gas present as successive studies had shown. But they were a long way off from knowing whether it was worth extracting.

Last week the department also granted London-based oil exploration company Enegi Oil an onshore petroleum licensing option for the Clare Basin, an area which covers all of Clare and part of Kerry and Limerick.
The company believes there is shale gas similar to that found in Newfoundland, Canada. Both areas were joined together hundreds of millions of years ago.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...290427180.html


The process used to extract gas from shale is called Hydraulic Fracturing or 'fracking' and is highly controversial because of the pollution of the ground water caused in surrounding areas.

A 2011 study by Congressional Democrats found that, in the process of hydraulic fracturing, "oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009," according to the New York Times.[39] A 2011 investigation by the New York Times based on various leaked EPA documents found that hydraulic fracturing had resulted in significant increases of radioactive material including radium and carcinogens including benzene in major rivers and watersheds.[40] At one site the amount of benzene discharged into the Allegheny River after treatment was 28 times accepted levels for drinking water.[39]
A 2011 peer-reviewed study found, on average, methane concentrations 17 times above normal in samples taken from water wells near shale gas drilling sites employing hydraulic fracturing. Water samples from 68 private water wells in the states of Pennsylvania and New York were tested and some were found to have extremely high concentrations of methane: 64 milligrams of methane per liter of drinking water, compared with a normal level of one milligram or lower. According to one of the authors of the study, "That sort of concentration is up at a level where people worry about an explosion hazard."[41][42]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

I see that that the French parliament has just voted to ban fracking:

The overwhelming vote by the National Assembly follows months of protest across France against a technique that environmentalists say threatens to pollute the water table. Many were outraged at the beginning of the year when it was discovered that several exploration permits had been granted without public consultation. The issue has become highly political as the government prepares for a difficult presidential campaign next year.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/907fd72c-7...#axzz1M5pUkmbh

Interesting to see how this develops in Leitrim. There was a good piece on this story by Philip Boucher Hayes on Drive Time yesterday which should be up on podcast by now.

[Seán Ryan]

Jesus wept!

These bastards have no shame at all. Whatever about the probable economic farce this will turn into, it promises to be an ecological nightmare.

Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is an obscene methodology that will destroy health, water and the country generally.

Anyone watched Josh Fox's "Gasland" yet?

Here's a clip: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8"]YouTube - GASLAND Trailer 2010[/ame]

Sheesh...

[Count Bobulescu]

Big trouble with fracking here in the US, particularly in NewYork and Pennsylvania. People’s tap water igniting. Lot’s of substantive links out there. I’ll try to find some, next week, Too busy now. If I forget PM me.

[Holly]

The newspaper failed to mention which government department granted the license.

[morticia]

I think the big question is, can it be better regulated so the negative effects are largely avoided?? Are the problems simply down to complete lack of regulation, or does the method itself always relate to unacceptable risks??

The problem is, given the intimate relationships between economic growth and a continuing energy supply, damned if you do, and bankrupt if you don't.

People will opt for damned rather than bust, it keeps more people in jobs. Highly indebted nations and states will go for it, to pay off debts. We will be amongst them. And if we refuse, our neighbours will apply the cosh.....

A little known side effect of fracking is an increase in the numbers of rust belters back at work

[Seán Ryan]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=timfvNgr_Q4"]YouTube - My Water's On Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song)[/ame]

[Secret Squirrel]

Anyone watched Josh Fox's "Gasland" yet?.....

I've just obtained a copy. I'll watch it in a wee while.

[barrym]

I am delighted that the French Parliament has banned it. I participated in March in a local demo in the Luberon region and we saw video evidence of what has happened in parts of Canada, horrifying. IMO, the effects cannot be 'regulated' it is a well known technique in the petrol industry, not economic until now and the big oil boys have put enormous pressure (no pun intended) on governments to allow them to go ahead. I assume it was Rabbitte's dept who gave the go ahead, presumably been hanging about since Ryan's time but the lads in the Dept knew it wouldn't fly with him, as did the exploration companies. It will now be justified, I presume, on the basis of the state of chassis we are in.

I'll have a look and see how the question was put in the French Parliament to see can if we get something going here.

B

[barrym]

Aha!! had a look (here for those who read French)

- http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/articl...0503_3244.html

and it seems it is a bit of a trick by the right wing. The text allows the exploration companies lots of wriggle room and plenty of outs. The passage in the Parliament was opposed by the socialsists aand demos outside the building included Jose Bove MEP (of the burning down of a McDonalds fame) and Nicholas Hulot, national eco treasure and potential candidate for the Presidency next year.

Not anything like as +ve as it seems.

What we need is Boyd - B or Ming or Wallace (or all three) to ask a question - never mind if it costs €160,000 (see the thread....) - on what exactly is foreseen as the technique to be used if the exploration is succesful and what exactly are the analyses done by the Dept., Geological Survey, etc., on the effects on ground water, local ecology, tourism, etc. Anyone a constituent of Ming?

B

[Baron von Biffo]

Aha!! had a look (here for those who read French)

- http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/articl...0503_3244.html

and it seems it is a bit of a trick by the right wing. The text allows the exploration companies lots of wriggle room and plenty of outs. The passage in the Parliament was opposed by the socialsists aand demos outside the building included Jose Bove MEP (of the burning down of a McDonalds fame) and Nicholas Hulot, national eco treasure and potential candidate for the Presidency next year.

Not anything like as +ve as it seems.

What we need is Boyd - B or Ming or Wallace (or all three) to ask a question - never mind if it costs €160,000 (see the thread....) - on what exactly is foreseen as the technique to be used if the exploration is succesful and what exactly are the analyses done by the Dept., Geological Survey, etc., on the effects on ground water, local ecology, tourism, etc. Anyone a constituent of Ming?

B

Ming hardly springs to mind as an environmentalist.

[barrym]

Ming hardly springs to mind as an environmentalist.

Agreed, but not many environmentalists in the current dail . He is local, who else would you suggest??

B

[C. Flower]

Agreed, but not many environmentalists in the current dail . He is local, who else would you suggest??

B

Anyone on the left. Michael D. Higgins even.

[Secret Squirrel]

Having watched that vid Gasland, I understand the fracking process to differ from oil drilling in that oil drilling usually relies on a single point of extraction. Fracking would involve a large network of collection points.
And in addition to the obvious concerns of the water table being contaminated by non-biodegradable cancerogens, the same substances allegedly find their way to the surface and become airborne.

The fracking process is not a one-off process either: it's repeated a number of times over the lifetime of the wells.


As a comical aside. There's a dude by the name of Mr Boren who appears at one of the hearings regarding the safety or other complications involving this hydraulic fracturing process. He's clearly defending the process.
He asks, "If you weren't able to do this hydraulic fracturing, how much more would we be dependent on foreign oil........and terrorism ?"

[antiestablishmentarian]

I remeber some fellow telling me about this a few years back and I thought he was loony. I was obviously badly wrong. But what's worrying is that these groups know about the resources there now, and given the rotten, craven record of An Bord Pleanála and the EPA in Rossport and the Hill Of Tara, I fear that this will go ahead without any of the limited protections that are in place in other countries.

[Baron von Biffo]

Agreed, but not many environmentalists in the current dail . He is local, who else would you suggest??

B

The current opposition being comprised of a splattering of micro parties and a constellation of narcissists it's hard to see any impediment to government plans. That said, there's something surreal about seeking environmental protection from a TD who was elected on a platform of environmental destruction.