The Chew Valley is covered by petroleum exploration and development licenses held by UK Methane who are hopeing to do just that in Keynsham. The previous licence holder was a company called Geomet UK, who in their license relinquishment report recommended that two stratigraphic tests should be drilled - one 1 km east of Hinton Blewett and the other 1 km east of Chew Manga. The location of these sites is indicated on Figure 35 of DECC's coalbed methane report. Here they are shown as red dots on a local map, together with the Hicks Gate site near Keynsham. The suggested site between Chew Manga and Stanton Drew is near Sandy Lane and within Chew Magna Parish. The site near Hinton Blewett is south from Camely Lodge in Camely Parish.
Phil Romford of The Bristol Exploration Club (for caving types) has published an interesting draft report on fracking in the Mendips - Hydraulic Fracturing Report. The report's author has met with UK Methane and discussed their proposals. He reports that UK Methane propose to "drill deep cores into the Westphalian coal beds and the underlying Namurian shales". He also reports that in addition to the Hicks Gate site UK Methane are working on two additional sites but have not said where they are located. The additional two sites might be anywhere within the PEDL licence areas but equally there is nothing to suppose they are not at the locations recommended by the previous licence holder. Does anyone else know?
Phil Romford of The Bristol Exploration Club (for caving types) has published an interesting draft report on fracking in the Mendips - Hydraulic Fracturing Report. The report's author has met with UK Methane and discussed their proposals. He reports that UK Methane propose to "drill deep cores into the Westphalian coal beds and the underlying Namurian shales". He also reports that in addition to the Hicks Gate site UK Methane are working on two additional sites but have not said where they are located. The additional two sites might be anywhere within the PEDL licence areas but equally there is nothing to suppose they are not at the locations recommended by the previous licence holder. Does anyone else know?
May I introduce myself? I am Phil Romford a qualified petroleum geochemist, now retired.
ReplyDeleteI would like to put my standpoint in context. I first became closely interested in hydraulic fracturing and associated extraction technologies when a local councillor started scare mongering about how the Mendip Hills caves water courses were going to be compromised. I asked myself 'would it really harm the water courses?'. I then set about talking directly with the licence block holders; the only way of finding out facts, and having discussions with the regulatory bodies. I then put the findings in the context of the Westphalian and Namurian coal measures to see whether exploiting these beds would or could have an effect upon the cave systems - it seemed rather unlikely.
I conducted a great deal of research on the history of fracking in the USA, where there certainly had been problems in the past, but the Obama administration addressed the issues by giving full powers back to the Environmental Protection Agency, who now fully regulate operations. I also researched the Cuadrilla operations in Lancashire to draw conclusions regarding the minor earthquakes that were proven to have been caused by their operations. However, it transpired that those earthquakes occured in a zone prone to this problem, and may well have occurred naturally at some later date. The magnitude of those quakes were less than some naturally occurring ones.
Please read my report for a full account of all this.
I am now working on a revision which will discuss the latest plans for test drilling, the latest technology and mitigation procedures, and coal bed methane since this may be a resource of interest.
I need to make it clear that I am totally independent and have no particular axe to grind.