Theresa May to pay upto £13,000 to families who stay on sources of shale gas

Theresa May has taken over as Prime Minister of Britain three weeks back and she has already taken several major decisions like scrapping the climate change department and, threatening to scupper the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant deal with China and France. She now plans to transform her predecessor David Cameron’s cautious fracking rewards scheme.
It seems she wants to offer five-figure cash payouts under a radical plan to boost the drive for controversial shale gas fracking. This Lottery-style ‘Frackpot’ windfall scheme is all about paying individual householders cash sums (this could be as high as £13,000) if they are living in areas where the gas can be extracted.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 August 2016.

This move by the new Prime Minister marks a major shift in policy from David Cameron’s blueprint for Britain’s energy needs. She is hopeful that her bold post-Brexit plan would open the doors to access the untapped energy reserve of Britain and give a boost to the economy.
However, it may not be plain sailing because environmental critics could argue that it is a sort of ‘bribe’ which could undermine local democracy. Councillors who are opposed to fracking could find themselves under pressure from voters who would be keen to get their share of the fracking lottery.
As per the existing proposals for fracking - sums of up to £10million in each affected area were to be taken from business rates paid by fracking firms and given to town halls and community groups. However, the new plan envisages diversion of all or some of that money to individuals to ensure that ordinary families ‘personally benefit from economic decisions’. The decision could be a game-changer in the politically explosive energy sector because it could override the green lobby’s fierce opposition to fracking.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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Oil field near Gatwick Airport could hold 100-billion barrels

#HorseHill #oil #fracking #Gatwickoil #UKOG The oil find near Gatwick Airport has been upgraded to 100 billion barrels by a company that is backing exploration of the area. As reported by UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG), the Horse Hill-1 well in the Weald Basin is now believed to be holding 158 million barrels per square mile. It may be recalled that earlier, in May 2014, the British Geological Survey had made an estimate that the Weald Basin could hold around 4.4 billion barrels of shale oil.
In the opinion of UKOG, the find at Gatwick Airport could be categorized as a possible "world class" resource with the potential for "significant daily oil production."

This has been revealed in news.sky.com dated 9 April 2015.
The US-based firm that had carried out study of the reservoir has estimated that recovery of the oil would be limited at between 3% and 15% of the total. On the plus side, there would not be any need to go in for the controversial extraction process, or fracking, to get access to the oil.
Of course, there is criticism from local campaigners who feel that it may not be feasible to eliminate fracking which may be necessary at some point in the future.
In the opinion of anti-fracking campaigner Charles Metcalfe, the South East of England is the most densely populated corner of England and, once holes are drilled all over the place those will completely change the nature of the countryside permanently. Ultimately, if the amount of oil extracted was not very much oil, then it would be a waste.

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Protests of anti-fracking lobby gather steam in Lancashire

#cuadrilla #fracking #lancashire #blackpool #preesehall The anti-fracking lobby is gaining in strength as demonstrators from all over UK would be assembling in Lancashire to raise their voices ahead of a controversial decision on the future of fracking in the county.
Cuadrilla, an exploration company, has apparently applied to get permission to develop new fracking sites after 2011 when it had been blamed for creating earth tremors in Blackpool three years ago. As a result, the firm had to suspend test drilling and abandon the Preese Hall site near the seaside resort. It was the only place in the UK where modern fracking techniques have been used so far.
Incidentally, the new areas proposed to be explored by Cuadrilla apparently sit on the same massive reserve of shale gas which, once exploited, could help revolutionize Britain's energy market. However, the opposition is coming from groups opposed to fracking who feel fracking would not be good for the countryside – it would, in fact, pollute the environment. Cuadrilla has, reportedly, applied to Lancashire County Council for permission to frack two sites in a rural area between Preston and Blackpool.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the name given to the process of drilling a mile or more into the earth and then injecting water, chemicals and sand under high pressure into rock so that the shale gas trapped between the layers of stone gets released.
Incidentally, supporters of fracking in the US argue that it has considerably reduced America's dependence on imported energy supplies and has helped to bolster the economy.

Are earthquakes in Kansas linked to fracking?

#kansasearthquake #fracking Officials have revealed, for the first time, that a sharp increase in earthquakes in Kansas could be attributed to an increase of fracking – fracking is a process devised to extract oil from the rocks by boring underground tunnels to reach the source of oil.
The process is a controversial one and in view of the increase in the number of tremors reported, especially in the state's south-central region, scientists are connecting them to the disposal of wastewater that is a byproduct of the oil-and-gas extraction process.
In the opinion of Rick Miller, geophysicist and senior scientist for the Kansas Geological Survey, there is a strong correlation between the disposal of saltwater and the earthquakes. It seems during the hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the operators make use of a mixture of saltwater and chemicals. The purpose is to break the underground rock formations so as to release oil and gas. Subsequently, to get rid of the water, the operators inject it deep into disposal wells.
Incidentally, fracking is at present a highly charged issue at the state government level and New York has recently linked up with Vermont to ban the process.
Fracking is not a new practice. However, the sudden spike in seismic activity in Kansas has become a matter of concern. As per reports of the Kansas Geological Survey, the state has recorded over 120 quakes in 2014, as against none in 2012.
Availability of fracking oil has reduced the price of oil globally - but, the danger of quakes need also to be addressed and tackled.