Solidarity in the Desolate North – 26 01 2014

“But there are large and uninhabited and desolate areas. Certainly in part of the north-east where there’s plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody’s residence where we could conduct without any kind of threat to the rural environment.”  Lord Howell*

Barton Moss – in the desolate north

Our coach arrived in a large car park with people waving and cheering – a great welcome after a long journey. I smiled at a slightly grubby looking woman who gave me a hug and thanked me for coming; she has been camping out at Barton Moss for the last 2 months over winter. People of all ages and descriptions arrived in coaches, minibuses, cars, on foot, in wheelchairs. The buzz and the atmosphere grew as we started to march together with banners waving, singing and shouting. Gayser Frackman appeared at regular intervals along the way, perched up high, shouting his support with drum in hand. The honking of horns from vehicles slowed by the march showed overwhelming support. We could see from the banners that many locals were present as well as those from round the country.

Just outside the camp, by the roadside we stopped to listen to speakers, music and messages of solidarity before walking down the muddy track to the drill site. If press interest was based on numbers of people then you would have heard much more about this Solidarity Sunday with a gathering of hundreds. But when the media focuses on clashes between protestors and police, a quiet gathering may almost go unnoticed.

Walking back from the drill site I was full of admiration for the people at the Barton Moss anti-fracking camp. It is stretched out along a muddy verge beside a single track road and the tents look beaten up by the recent weather. Yet the camp appeared extremely well organised; hot food was being given out and there was a constant flow of people from the tea tent. People are living there and doing so because of the strength of their feelings. They are there for us, as well as themselves because if fracking is allowed it will affect us all.

My motivation for sitting on a coach for 8 hours on a Sunday came from my outrage at Cameron’s recent announcement that he would be bribing Councils (giving them a financial share of the business rates) to agree Planning for hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’. Big business is heavily influencing our government, which is why Cameron and his allies are going ‘all out’ for the dash for gas. Why else would a ‘Green’ government make fracking so easy and allow the potential for low carbon and renewables to fall by the wayside.

I don’t use the word ‘bribe’ lightly, yet how else can the government’s actions be seen? Councils are strapped for cash and are really struggling to provide vital support and services for the most vulnerable people in our communities. So, they would consider carefully, any offer of cash. But what they also need to consider is how these communities could be destroyed by the industrialisation of the landscape, the risk of damage to human and livestock health and the further pollution of the environment. Now, and in decades to come.

So I travelled to Barton Moss, with nearly 50 others from Bristol and Somerset to show Solidarity with people in a part of the country I previously thought I had no connection with. The connection is that we are voicing our opposition to fracking, and unless we stand together to show our opposition, people will not listen and the government will not stop.

*Lord Howell (who lives in southern England), former minister and adviser on energy policy to William Hague and George Osborne’s father-in-law, House of Lords on 30 07 13

Solidarity Sunday, Sunday 26th January 2014

This is your chance to actively show you care and that you are will to take a stand with communities on the frontline of fracking.

What?: A march & demonstration at Barton Moss Community Protection Camp, Greater Manchester

When?: Sunday 26th January 2014

Where?: Leaving Glastonbury Town Hall Car Park 7am | Bristol Temple Meads Train Station 8am. Returning 5pm from Manchester

How to Book: Please use the form here: http://www.frackfreesomerset.org/solidaritysunday/

Contributions: £20 waged | £10 unwaged. Please donate before the day: http://www.frackfreesomerset.org/what-you-can-do/donate/

If you can’t go yourself, why not donate towards someone else?

Any questions: Email info@frackfreesomerset.org 

Fracking Charm Offensive

The government has gone on a Fracking charm offensive today (13th Jan 2014) with the Prime Minister saying that the government is “going all out for shale” and has announced that councils can retain all of the business rates raised by from fracking sites. This has been widely reported as a “bribe” in the press. (We have been here before).

David Cameron said today :

• “As soon as a well is dug the local community should get £100,000”. This is not correct. It is only when a well is hydraulically fractured which may not happen at all for exploratory wells and may not happen for some years for coalbed methane production wells. Further this is a voluntary payment by companies which are members of  the UK Onshore Operators Group. We have asked UKOOG who their members are. No reply.
• That the shale industry will “bring 74,000 jobs” – highly debatable.
• That shale gas will “Give us cheaper energy”. This is a real howler. Lord Stern (LSE), Lord Browne (Chairman of Cuadrilla for heaven’s sake) and the Department of Energy’s Chief Scientific Adviser, and many others, all say that shale gas will not bring down energy prices in the UK.
• That shale gas will “Increase our energy security “. This is a mirage. Shale gas may offer a short-term supply of gas but then what? That is not energy security. Further it does so at the expense of climate security and will leave behind a countryside full of stranded and worthless assets. The government’s statutory adviser, the Climate Change Committee, estimates that the dash for gas is going to cost us (not save us) many billions of pounds.
• “I want us to get on board this change that is doing so much good and bringing so much benefit to North America. I want us to benefit from it here as well.” Who on Earth is advising the Prime Minister?

This is what the Barnett Shale just outside Dallas looks like from space. The image is nearly 30 km across. Not all of those little white dots are drilling pads but a huge number of them are. The others are people’s houses.

Drilling pads to the west of Dallas, Landsat 8, 31 August 2013.

Some well sites are immediately adjacent to people’s homes.  Is this really what Cameron wants Britain to look like, a great mass of fracking pads? Well the people of Dallas (Oil City) are getting fed up with it and in December the City Council banned fracking within 1,500 feet of homes, schools, churches and protected areas. There are no such restrictions in the UK and UK Methane boasted at the debate in Bath that they have previously drilled within 50m (150 feet) of residences.

Politicians such as Mr Cameron, Mr Fallon, Mr Lilley and Mr Rees-Mogg continue to claim that shale gas will give us cheaper energy prices, whereas Lord Stern and many others call this “baseless economics”.

Only last week David Cameron said that the current floods are linked to climate change but today he is forcing through an expensive policy which compromises our climate change commitments. DECC’s Chief Scientific Adviser recently reported to DECC that:
“The view of the authors is that without global climate policies (of the sort already advocated by the UK) new fossil fuel exploitation is likely to lead to an increase in cumulative carbon emissions and the risk of climate change. We would strongly encourage continued efforts from the UK and internationally to address this issue, proportionate to the emissions involved.”

(McKay & Stone 2013, Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with Shale Gas Extraction and Use. Department of Energy and Climate Change. )

Politicians are welcome to their own opinions and policies but they are not entitled to their own facts. The coalition government is willfully ignoring advice from their own advisers to concoct a pro-shale policy.

Why Wytch Farm is a poor fracking comparison for Somerset

---

NB Have a read of Part II of this posting which is updated with new information.

BP Shuts UK Field After Oil Leak

---

The oil production facilities at Wytch Farm in Dorset are often given as a model example of responsible fracking and justification of why unconventional gas should be pursued in Somerset and elsewhere, for example: The Telegraph’s  The town where ‘fracking’ is already happening. If this is the case then why are people so agitated about the possibility of unconventional gas extraction in Somerset? How do the two compare? Dr Ian West’s pages at the University of Southampton web site are a good source of technical information.

First, Wytch Farm is an oil field not coalbed methane production – which is the primary concern in Somerset and the Chew Valley.

Secondly, whilst directional drilling and well stimulation have been successfully used at Wytch Farm the oil field is largely under Poole Harbour and the wells are on the coast, on Furzey Island or in Poole Harbour itself see – Wytch-Wells-Trajectories. Extended directional drilling was necessary partly due to onshore opposition to drilling by the National Trust and the residential area on Hook Island.  The wells are 1.6 km beneath the surface deeper than would be the case in the Bristol-Somerset coal field. Of the 199 wells drilled at Wytch Farm not a single one is classified as either Coalbed Methane or Shale Gas.

The photograph in the Telegraph article shows only about 3 hectares (football pitches) of the Wytch Farm site which is actually about 18 ha in size. The facilities consist of well sites, extended reach directional drilling rigs , nodding donkeys,  gathering station, oil gas and water processing, gas separation, and gas processing facilities (in this case at Lasham in Hampshire).

With regard to shale gas fracking Southampton University implies that it has not taken place in the Wytch Farm area, saying  – “If fracking was ever to take place offshore in mature Jurassic shales of the Portland – Isle of Wight Basin…” and  “… note onshore Dorset generally does not have thermally mature shale; the real prospects are only in the Jurassic basin offshore“. The University site also illustrates how gas can escape upwards along fault lines, a concern also in Somerset in relation to both hydrocarbons and Radon. Further, part of the Wytch Farm facilities are on Furzey Island in Poole Harbour and by definition nowhere near any residences. Other onshore facilities are surrounded by water on three sides and are again not near residences. There are no towns or villages within about 3km of any part of the site and it is not upstream of any major reservoirs. The number of residences (farms) near the site is very low.

The Wytch Farm site is intensive as it concentrates a lot of production from under the harbour into a relatively small surface area by using multiple wells and extended directional drilling for up to 10.5 km beneath the sea. The whole site occupies about 18 ha of land – plus interconnecting pipelines, 3 km of private access road, 91 km of oil pipeline and 18 km of gas pipeline plus gas processing facilities elsewhere. Quite a major industrial complex.

The image below shows the Wytch Farm oil facilities in red. Poole Harbour is to the north and the central dark area is woodland.

Wytch Farm, Dorset. Oil facilities in red.

This is a Landsat 8 satellite image captured on  July 8th 2013.  The image is 6.5km wide.

Coalbed methane on the other hand is an extensive activity as directional drilling is over short distances, about 400m, with a small number of wells per pad and requires many drilling pads spread across the landscape spaced about 750m apart. The image below is of a coalbed methane gas field in Queensland and is to scale with the Wytch Farm image above. The image has about 70 pads each of which is about 1 ha in size, plus access roads, pipelines and storage pits. Note that Caudrilla says their pads are 2 ha in size – twice the size of Lord’s cricket ground. Dark areas are woodland, light spots are gas well pads.

Coalbed Methane gas field in Queensland, Australia

This Landsat image was captured on the 27th May 2013.

Q. So is oil extraction from Wytch Farm a reassuring example for coalbed methane production in Somerset and the densely populated Chew Valley?

A. No and the Queensland example is even worse.

Film Showing on Friday 6th December

A screening of an hour-long film The Truth Behind the Dash for Gas by Marco Jackson for Frack Free Somerset, which shows how drilling for unconventional gas could affect the local area, will be shown in Ubley village hall on the 6th December at 7:30 pm.

The Chew Valley is covered by two existing explorations and development licenses. Planning applications to drill for unconventional gas may be made at any time. Come to learn about local geological concerns, the potential industrialisation of the landscape plus threats to health and water supplies.

Free.  All welcome to share opinions and ask questions.

The Truth Behind the Dash for Gas – a documentary by Marco Jackson

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are keen to promote fracking as the answer to our national energy problems and local MP Jacob Rees Mogg is keen to see it here in Somerset. Many ordinary people in Somerset who keep abreast of information from reputable scientists are dubious about any advantages and concerned about damage to the environment, people’s health and animal welfare.

Marco Jackson’s film for Frack Free Somerset The Truth Behind The Dash For Gas  is focused on Somerset and coalbed methane and is now available  on Vimeo. The film lasts for one hour.

[For educational / information purposes]

Chew Valley Lockdown

If you are a property owner and don’t want gas drilling under your land then join the Chew Valley Lockdown and deny access to drilling companies across your boundary and underneath your property.

The Community Farm says “Fracking is, in so many ways, the antithesis of what The Community Farm represents. We are fundamentally and philosophically opposed to fracking. We shall actively resist any attempt to drill beneath the boundaries of the farm site and will support others in the locality and beyond that do that same”

Chew Valley Fracking Lockdown, 28 Oct 2013

Send us your parcel boundaries to get on the map. Go to the Chew Valley Lockdown page to find out how to do it. Click on the map to enlarge it. We are collecting maps for all of the Chew Valley and adjacent areas not just the area currently shown.

Wrongmove.org

Wrongmove.org is a new campaign by Greenpeace to provide a legal block against fracking.

Right now, the government has put nearly two-thirds of England up for shale, without fully understanding what effects fracking is likely to have on local health or the countryside.

What we do know is that if we want to tackle climate change, we can’t be digging new fossil fuels out of the ground.[1]

Find out if your home is at risk of being fracked. Look up your postcode at wrongmove.org now.

Despite the government’s enthusiastic dash for gas, we have the power to make fracking very difficult, and may even be able to halt exploration in its tracks, if enough of us come together.

This is how it works: fracking involves horizontal drilling that can extend two miles from the actual drill site, passing directly under the homes of those nearby. If you don’t want fracking companies pumping toxic chemicals under your home, you can say so. Then, any drilling there becomes trespassing; the frackers would be breaking the law.

Therefore, if enough of us say we are not willing for the land under our homes to be fracked, we make it harder for companies to ignore the law and could stop fracking in its tracks.

All you have to do is declare that your home is Not for Shale and you will be added to the growing legal block to stop fracking where you live.

But we need to act quickly, as there are hints that the government will try to change the law to force through their dash for gas! [2]

Look up your postcode and find out if you could be fracked and join the legal block now.

Now is our chance to take a stand to keep dirty fuels in the ground where they belong and say no to fracking our communities.

Frack Free Chew Valley

[1] http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/two-thirds-of-energy-sector-will-have-to-be-left-undeveloped-bonn-conference-told-1.1425009

[2] http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/naturalresources/article3877163.ece

Somerset Fracking Documentary

The Truth About Fracking

Halliburton entering UK unconventional gas sector

Very recently the Somerset Guardian published an opinion piece about the need to “dig deeper” to uncover the facts about fracking which characterises Somerset’s local fracking awareness groups as untruthful,  ill-informed, fact distorting “zealots and banner-wavers”. The author Kevin Daly goes on to say that no link between methane and well water has ever been found, whereas it is well documented, and quotes from a recent peer reviewed paper that groundwater contamination is “not physically plausible”. The sentiment of this report can be traced to Matt Ridley (the well know climate change skeptic and pro-fracker who writes in the Times) and to EnergyInDepth an oil and gas lobby organisation in the USA. The “not physically plausible” quote comes from a paper written by a company paid to write it by Halliburton, using Halliburton data and promoted by EnergyInDepth which was set up by a bevvy of oil companies including Halliburton specifically to  “combat new environmental regulation, especially with regard to hydraulic fracturing”. The conclusions of this paper are inappropriate to Somerset because it does not consider the complex local geology or the fact that pathways already exist between great depth and surface water sources – hence the hot springs of Bath and Bristol.

What is Halliburton famous for?

• Being heavily involved in “extreme energy” of deep water drilling and hydraulic fracturing
• The so called “Halliburton loophole” which exempts fracking fluids from the US Safe Drinking Water Act – as organised by Dick Cheney former Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton
• Being responsible for the cement casing of the Deepwater Horizon drilling operation and disaster
• Pleading guilty to the criminal behavior in destroying evidence in connection to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Why is Halliburton propaganda appearing in our local press?

The Independent reports today: US oil giant Halliburton lined up as potential fracking partner.

Ah that may be the reason.

We should be concerned that this inappropriately reassuring industry view of unconventional gas has been fed through our local Somerset media without the means to refer to or question the sources because they were not referenced. Nor is the article available online, only comments to it.