Coal Bed Methane

[Maggie 65]

The application for an exploratory drill in Dudlestone has gone into Shropshire Council from Dart energy.

 http://planningpa.shropshire.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=N7CUTJTD06Z00

 

This is in the same spot as the prevous lapsed application. Since we have been posting information about this several 'anti-fracking' (sic) organisations have sprung up opposed to these development.  If this is your 'bag' then here are some links to Facebook Campaigns.

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frack-Free-North-Shropshire/616884318399368?ref=ts&fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/NEWAFAN?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/NorthShropshireAntiFrackingAssociation

 

There is a meeting in St Martins Miners Institute on Monday 23rd, 7.30 pm.

(according to a poster up in Stans) to be attended by council leader Keith Barrow 

 

As usual I have tried to keep a level head and open mind and concentrate on the information that is available, and have just posted the following on the north east shropshire anti fracking site,  I suspect it will receive a scathing response. 

 

'Have read it through briefly, the exploratory drill goes deep, 830m, down into the lower Coal Measures.  However they state elsewhere that deeper coal seams under greater pressure have  no cavities for gas to accumulate. This application is what it says, an attempt to see which coal seams have potentials for methane extraction within PEDL 185 by examining this spot at the south east and deepest part of it.  I would suggest that any future exploitation of this resource would likely take place further north west in the PEDL area, ie where coal seams are closer to the surface.  What does everyone else think?'

 

Anyhow, if you feel strongly about this I suggest you submit a comment to Shropshire Council via the application process, via the link above. 

Edited June 20, 2014 by Maggie

[Maggie 65]

I attended the packed meeting in St Martins last night (see above) organised by Frack Free Duddleston.  There is a report in the Shropshire Star here  http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/24/concern-raised-on-drilling-in-shropshire/  which is worth a read. Council Leader Keith Barrow has stated that he doesn't think it is a good idea. He has agreed to get something written by council officers about CBM asap.  Someone in the audience reported having phoned Shropshire Council for some information and having been given a cock and bull story about how they were going to set light to the coal then pump out the methane, nonsense!

 I went with an open mind and have come away still unsure of the merits or demerits of the process, BUT am now damn sure that we need to find out more about what is likely to happen if Dart go ahead and develop CBM, so I would vote, if I could,  for a moratorium from Shropshire until more information is forthcoming.  It appears that it is not just me or Shropshire Council officers, who don't know what is going to happen, doubt was cast on whether Dart actually knew what they were doing either; in terms of not demonstrating any prior knowledge of underlying geology or where the old mines were etc (which should be their first concern before any of this).   However there was no representative from Dart at this meeting to question.  

If you look at this site http://www.frackfreedudleston.org.uk there should be some help and proforma letters if you want to object to the planning application.  

Did anyone else go?

One particular local problem flagged up at the meeting was that there would be a huge increase in traffic movements during drilling, which will not help all those children walking to the new St Martins School.  Small lanes in north Shropshire are not suitable for lots of heavy traffic.

[Luke Ashley 0]

  Someone in the audience reported having phoned Shropshire Council for some information and having been given a cock and bull story about how they were going to set light to the coal then pump out the methane, nonsense!

Check out page 12 of this Pdf.

 

In the UK the total area where coals are suitable for gasification is approximately 2800 km

 

The best (or ‘good’) areas occur in Eastern England, North Wales, Cheshire Basin, South Lancashire, the Midlands, Warwickshire, South Wales and the Midland Valley of Scotland.

 

There is potential for combined UCG-VCBM (Coalbed methane from virgin coal seams) schemes where ‘good’ UCG areas overlap with areas that have favourable VCBM characteristics.

 

 

[Maggie 65]

Is it correct Luke that coal gassification is almost untried, and has failed catastrophically in Australia?  

[Maggie 65]

and here is a second, more detailed report of the meeting last night from the Shropshire Star   http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/24/methane-gas-drilling-in-shropshire-bonkers/

[Maggie 65]

...and another one today http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/25/24-hour-drilling-in-shropshire-could-start-as-soon-as-september/

[Luke Ashley 0]

Is it correct Luke that coal gassification is almost untried, and has failed catastrophically in Australia?  

That`s absolutely right Maggie.

Paul Mobbs explains the history quite well in a recent article.

SLAPPing campaigners for telling the truth – the underground coal gasification lobby turns even nastier

 

He also accurately explains why the Government refuse to listen to the concerns of residents and why the mainstream media (BBC) are not encouraging balanced debates in his latest article,

Fracking - you are not important

 

By the way. He emailed me today asking if I knew of any groups that wanted to be added to his "Extreme Marches contacts." section.

If you know of any, get them to send him an email, extrememarches@fraw.org.uk

[Maggie 65]

Sorry I've never been extreme (well only a bit),  I'm just trying to find out what the frack is going on.  I have been looking at old NCB plans of underground Ifton today.  Cannot get an image (downloaded 2 programmes to try to stitch photos of a plan together, it is very large, but neither managed it, too many straight lines and black and grey).  However I plotted out the area covered by underground workings as of 1962 onto a recent map, and they finish rather close to where the planned drill site will go.  I don't know how safe this is, given that the mines are now filled with water and a breach would see them flowing down along the dip towards the Duddleston site.  If they ever then wanted to use it for extraction they might be pumping water for a very long time.  Did someone mention a 1 km rule?.  I'll put the map, and what I took it from for authenticity in the Gallery Images.

[Maggie 65]

Today there are over 200 objections to the Applicatioto test drill at Dudleston.  have a look here.  http://planningpa.shropshire.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=N7CUTJTD06Z00  

 

Some very good points have been made, such as the heavy traffic on small lanes or through St Martins, and the problems of noise from 24 hour drilling.  I would not like to live next door to this.  However there does seem to be confusion between this,and a big well extracting gas; which would be a whole separate planning application, and it appears that the intention is to cap this site, not continue to use it afterwards. Am I the only person who is interested in finding out what is down there and its chemical composition before getting het up about gas wells?  

[Maggie 65]

I have received this email from Frack Free Duddleston, marking the end of the Planning Consultation period.  

 

End of the Consultation Phase
 
In this email:

• Planning objections
• Lobbying Shropshire Council
• Owen Paterson MP
• Protection camp 

Dear Supporter

First of all a huge thank you from all at FrackFreeDudleston for making your voice heard and for putting those objections on the planning portal. There are currently 468 objections on the site and an analysis of the names shows that there are relatively few people in the area that haven’t objected. This is the strongest message possible that the test drill is not wanted in this area and for completely valid reasons.

Dart said to many people in their Open Meetings that they would not go where a community did not want them. We know that Dart monitor our website so Dart, we would like to officially request that you withdraw your application, if you are indeed people of your word. Can we have your comment please?

Should Dart not be true to their word, the planners and councillors will be taking note of all of these objections, including the 32 page document from FrackFreeDudleston, which was submitted on behalf of all of us. See below for a link to the document.

The UK Government has this week issued the latest round of Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDL), which means that half of Britain is now available for gas companies to put in their applications to drill. This includes most of Shropshire, including Shrewsbury. It is not a matter anymore just for Dudleston or the other sites earmarked already in North Shropshire.  

As you may remember from the FrackFreeDudleston’s Public Meetings, the Dept of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) report on coal bed methane concludes that Shropshire is not geologically suitable for extraction. A test drill to extract a sample of coal will verify the amount of gas, but won’t provide any information about whether extraction is viable.  That either has to come from existing geological data, or by drilling an extraction well and giving it a try.

Trying to extract in an area that is not suitable would come with a very high risk of underground contamination, therefore the sensible approach would be to require that the geological data be checked first.  Taking that one step further, and given that the data already exists, it would be sensible to look at that before conducting the test drill. Why inflict a three month 24/7 drilling operation on a quiet rural community if subsequent extraction is not going to work?!

Unfortunately Government planning guidelines stipulate that test drilling applications be considered without reference to future extraction phases.  Shropshire Council used to have a planning policy that required all oil and gas proposals to explore the whole project at the earliest possible stage, however that has been partially overruled by the new national policy.

FrackFreeDudleston attended the full council meeting at Shire Hall in Shrewsbury recently to speak against the Shropshire Council intention to trust that the planning process will come up with the right answer on CBM extraction applications.  Chris Hesketh asked that the council not allow any application to be approved without proof from a reliable source (preferably DECC) that actual extraction is geologically possible.  

A very lively debate kicked off, which was then adjourned in favour of there being a cross-party working group to inform the council, taking input from Chris as well as industry experts.  Now two weeks later we are waiting for the first signs of that group to appear….

Another avenue that has been explored is that of asking our local MP to help.  Thank you to everyone that has written letters to Owen Paterson MP.  We firmly believe that a renewable energy strategy would be better for Britain (broadly the same cost as CBM but would provide clean energy for many years instead of a short burst of dirty energy).  Owen is publicly strongly in favour of fossil fuel companies so rather than try to win that argument we simply asked that he look at the situation in his own constituency.

In a much-overheard follow-up discussion at the Dudleston Fete, Owen indicated that after the initial meeting he’d checked with the Government experts and was told that extraction in this area would be “impossible”.  Chris put it to him that he needs to be helping stop the test drill application however his dismissive response was that he “doesn’t do planning”.   Now that he is no longer the Environment Minister we need to be pushing him to take more of a local perspective.  If you would care to visit http://www.owenpaterson.org/contact and let him know that his people need his support then that would be very helpful.  Despite his claim, he can make a big difference and has done so on other planning issues.

More news that you are probably already aware of is that The North Shropshire Community Protection Group have set up camp on a discreet corner of a field that is part of the planned drill site.  FrackFreeDudleston have no actual connection with the group and is continuing with its strategy of spreading awareness and opposing the planning application.  Although the case we have made against the planning application is very strong, there are no certainties when overall Government policy has been tilted so firmly in favour of drilling companies, especially at test drill stage. If the application was approved then this kind of site occupation is a useful next line of defence.

We have visited the camp and are happy to say that they are pleasant, friendly people, very well informed on the environmental issues and are keeping a tidy and unobtrusive presence.  They have a rota system so that they can return to their jobs and families whilst ensuring that the camp is always occupied.  We are very pleased that the Protectors are there and hope that the community welcomes them. Several local residents have already been to visit them.

Their group are also providing another unexpected service.  It would appear that there have been people attempting to interfere with the badger setts close to the site.  On two occasions the Protectors have disturbed groups of people in the middle of the night.  Bovine TB is a very serious subject for farmers and the experts say that risks of cross-infection from badgers are extremely low if the badger population is left undisturbed.  Thankfully the nocturnal visits appear to have now stopped.

FrackFreeDudleston will continue to lobby against the application and will keep you informed of progress. West Sussex council refused permission at Wisborough Green and we have even stronger planning arguments than they did.  A decision is not expected on the Dudleston application until mid September.
Please feel free to contact us via the website or email:  contact@frackfreedudleston.org.uk

With best wishes
FrackFreeDudleston
Click here to view the 32 page group objection.

Visit our website  

[Maggie 65]

There is a piece in the Shropshire Star about Dart's response to the hundrds of objections to the test drill at Duddleston.  

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-news/2014/09/20/no-fracking-vow-by-energy-bosses/

 

They stress that this is just an exploratory drill, part of which function is to find out more about what lies beneath.  This was the reason why I did not personally object to the planning application,  despite attending a meeting and listening to the objectors comments I thought that what they were objecting to, ie extraction of CBM, would have been covered by a separate planning application if and when, and might well not take place anywhere nearby anyway depending on what was discovered by the test drill.  

 

I hope they intend to make their results known.  When I started following this, ages ago, the underground information from BGS was different to now.  The Bowland Shales (the source of the shale gas) were mapped as rising to the surface just south of Wrexham. They now postulate that there might be a separate depositional basin beneath Ellesmere, well below the coal seams.  I suspect Dart are using an old planning application site (which had lapsed but they probably thought would be easy to renew) to test this hypothesis. Just my opinion!.

[Maggie 65]

Planning Officers recommend granting the planning application for test drilling at Duddleston ahead of the Planning Committee meeting next week.  Lots of people objected!

 

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/10/17/planning-officers-back-shropshire-gas-test-drill-bid-despite-fears/

[Maggie 65]

Well it must have been an interesting planning meeting at Shirehall today.  The Councillors wanted to reject the appltcation for a test drill, but instead it has been postponed because the officers and the legal people stepped in.  I wonder what that is about?  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-29762509

[Maggie 65]

Nice article about the protest camp in Duddleston is in the Shropshire Star.  They are hunkering down for the winter, even have a wood burner to keep warm. http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/11/22/anti-drilling-campaigners-get-ready-for-winter-at-shropshire-camp/border-23-cam-6/