viernes, 6 de octubre de 2017

Ineos warns fracking ban could lead to mass exodus of workers








The Falkirk Herald
By JAMES TRIMBLE
05 October 2017



Petrochemical giant Ineos was licking its wounds after its plans for fracking in Scotland suffered a major – perhaps fatal – setback this week.

On Tuesday, Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse made the Scottish Government’s stance on the practice of hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – crystal clear as he announced it would be supporting an outright ban.

Still smarting from the announcement, Ineos, which operates in Grangemouth, stated the decision could lead to experienced workers leaving the site in their droves for pastures new as North Sea supplies start to dwindle.

At Holyrood on Tuesday, Mr Wheelhouse stated: “We will not support the development of unconventional extraction of oil and gas in Scotland. The decision I’m making today means fracking cannot and will not take place in Scotland.

“It is clear people across Scotland remain firmly opposed to fracking – this government has listened and taken decisive action. The people have spoken, the time has come to move on.”

A parliamentary vote to finalise the issue will take place in the near future – probably after the upcoming parliamentary recess…


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Nicola Sturgeon: El fracking será prohibido en Escocia, fin de la historia.







Energy Voice
05 de octubre de 2017


Nicola Sturgeon ha insistido en que fracking será prohibido en Escocia y supondrá el "final de la historia", ya que hizo una oposición personal clara a la práctica.


La Primera Ministra había dicho anteriormente que era "muy escéptica" sobre el proceso.

Después de que el ministro escocés de Energía, Paul Wheelhouse, anunciara el martes que el Gobierno escocés extendería su moratoria a una prohibición permanente, la líder del SNP dijo que ella no creía que debiera permitirse.

La Sra. Sturgeon dejó claro su punto de vista después de que el parlamentario del Partido Verde Escocés,  Mark Ruskell,  desafiara a los ministros de Holyrood a ir más allá y "conseguir una prohibición consolidada" legislando para prohibir la fractura hidráulica.

El controvertido procedimiento consiste en inyectar agua a alta presión en formaciones de esquisto, fracturando la roca y permitiendo que el gas natural fluya hacia fuera, con los opositores que explican preocupaciones ambientales y sobre la salud.

Los partidarios del fracking, entre ellos los conservadores escoceses, destacan las oportunidades económicas que el fracking podría traer a Escocia, donde el sector de petróleo y gas del Mar del Norte está en declive.

Ruskell dijo que mientras el anuncio de la prohibición "se ha cumplido correctamente con alguna celebración en Escocia", agregó que había "preocupaciones de las comunidades y en muchos miembros del SNP de que la prohibición aún no es legalmente definitiva, ya que simplemente se extiende una interrupción temporal en la planificación de decisiones "….


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domingo, 24 de septiembre de 2017

UK Fracking: Protest update: 18-24 September 2017



Protest outside Third Energy’s Kirby Misperton site, 19 September 2017. Photo: Kirby Misperton Protection Camp




Drill or Drop?
BY RUTH HAYHURST
SEPTEMBER 23, 2017



In this week’s update on protests about fracking and the onshore oil and gas industry:

MPs and party leaders visit Preston New Road protests;

Arrests and charges at Kirby Misperton;

Pop-up protests at Third Energy suppliers.

This post will be updated throughout the week. Please let us know about news you think DrillorDrop should be reporting on this post.


22 September 2017

Protests at suppliers to Third Energy’s Kirby Misperton site


Opponents of fracking plans at Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire carried out small protests outside suppliers to Third Energy....

Protest at Sky Scaffolding, in Whitby, 22 September 2017. Photo: Eddie Thornton


Protest at Moorhouse Drilling, Briddlington, 22 September 2017. Photo: Natalie Morris




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Real Media: UK Drilling Down with Dodgy Fracking Data








The Real News
September 23, 2017



A report commissioned by 'Talk Fracking' analyzes the latest peer-reviewed fracking science and questions a 4-year-old report that UK conservatives rely on to push through their fracking agenda


SPEAKER:    The Mackay-Stone Report, which is the government's cornerstone report into selling fracking to the nation has now been exposed as fake science, dodgy data, and a dodgy dossier.

TINA-LOUISE ROTHERY:           The Mackay-Stone Report was a report that came out after a study that was done that was called the Howarth Study. Now the Howarth Study came out in 2011, and that was Ingraffea and two other gentlemen who did the study. It was a really thorough but very damning study of the shale gas industry.

PAUL MOBBS:        That was just as the government were launching the shale oil and gas strategy in Britain, and it looked rather bad that this report came out saying that shale gas is worse than coal. So they commissioned the DECC, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, scientific advisor and an economist to look at the issue and produce a report for the government saying what the state actually was.

TINA-LOUISE ROTHERY:           The processes looked reasonable, but where were they getting those figures?

PAUL MOBBS:        So we have the industry figures, which use a system called inventory analysis. The inventory method is called bottom-up, because you break the system down into its component parts at the bottom. So they recreated bits of equipment in laboratories, work out what each piece is creating, that is the inventory, and by adding all the bottom bits together, you work upwards to produce a top-level figure.

The inventory analysis approach, it's been known since the 1990s that it always underestimates. So now they can take the equipment out into the field. What the instrumental method finds is that the real emissions can be anything from a factor of two to nine times higher. That's why these two figures are different; one is an estimate, which is what the governments and the international organizations base their figures on, which is mostly estimates, and one is a measure of the actual level of pollution.

Since then, we've had 40 or 50 new studies, most of which either criticize inventory analysis by showing that the figures aren't very representative of what's really happening, or they're showing much higher levels because they're monitoring the actual pollution that was in the environment.

SPEAKER:    We know from the International Panel on Climate Change that the next 20 to 30 years are the most important in terms of reducing our emissions so that we don't pass the two-degree tipping point where we cannot stop the runaway climate change.

PAUL MOBBS:        When you emit carbon dioxide, it's quite long-lived, and so by measuring it at 100 years, you're measuring how much persists in the environment.

Methane has a higher warming effect but most of that effect happens in the first 20 years, because it traps heat almost immediately and then slowly over time turns into carbon dioxide, and so you wouldn't look at the effect of methane over 100 years because most of it wouldn't exist. You have to look over 20 years.

JOE CORRE:            The Mackay-Stone Report, of course, used a 20 times figure after the 100-year period, which to say the least is disingenuous, particularly if their report was supposed to be looking specifically at the effect fracking would have on climate change.

PAUL MOBBS:        If you're looking at the 20-year global warming potential, if it leaks more than two percent, it's worse than coal. We're talking leakage rates which are acknowledged by the government of a half to one percent. If that's an underestimate of three or four times then you're up into that range which makes shale gas as bad as coal.

TINA-LOUISE ROTHERY:           There is a duty of care in government, a duty of care to our children, and they are not fulfilling that. Worse than not fulfilling it, they are positively putting them at risk by sending out false signals, false reports, and lies.

JOE CORRE:            It's critical that people understand the ramifications of the Conservative Party Manifesto as we head into this election. It affects our future, our children's future, and the environment and habitat that we have to live in and survive on. The Infrastructure Act in 2015 created a new definition for fracking, and they defined it as using less than 10,000 cubic meters of toxic fracking fluid, the equivalent to four Olympic-sized swimming pools. Anything that uses a bucketful less than four Olympic-sized swimming pools will be allowed to be pushed through under permitted development. What you will find is that any drilling for petroleum and such is exempt from any objections from the council and therefore local people. Permitted development also means that the council do not have to give notice of any planning applications from the fracking companies to local people. The first time you're going to know about it is when they turn up on your doorstep, and it will be too late and there's nothing you can do about it.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD: If you put that into perspective, in the last 10 years 90% of the fracked oil wells in America and 45% of the fracked gas wells would be non-fracking….


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El “fracking” sobrevive con respiración asistida










Publicado en 20.minutos.es /Blog
Por Manuel Peinado Lorca, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid.
20 de septiembre de 2017



Mientras que los principales medios de comunicación continúan propagando que el avance tecnológico traerá consigo suministros de combustibles fósiles cada vez más abundantes, la industria se automedica para mantenerse viva. La disminución de las reservas de petróleo y de las inversiones en el sector, y el aumento de los costes financieros asociados a la explotación, son los factores que están diezmando la que parecía ser una inagotable mina de oro negro. La burbuja comenzó a desinflarse en 2014 y sigue haciéndolo.

El consumo mundial de petróleo en 2016 fue de 25,1 miles de millones de barriles (KMB; Figura 1). Ese año, la industria petrolífera mundial sólo descubrió 2,4 KMB de petróleo convencional, menos de la tercera parte de los descubrimientos medios en quince años (9 KMB). El petróleo convencional es el más rentable, y su tasa de retorno energético TRE es mucho mayor que la de los crudos “no convencionales” como los que se obtienen offshore, de las arenas asfálticas, del chapapote venezolano o mediante fracking. Hay una buena razón para el aprovechamiento reciente de estas fuentes. Por decirlo brevemente, estamos rebañando el fondo del tarro de miel: eso es todo lo que nos queda del barril global.

Figura 1: consumo y descubrimientos de petróleo convencional en 2016 (Agencia Internacional de la Energía (2017).


Ahora, para poner el gráfico anterior en perspectiva, en la Figura 2 aparecen los descubrimientos globales anuales de petróleo convencional desde 1947. Se puede observar que los 2,4 KMB descubiertos en 2016 son apenas una charca cuando se comparan con los años gloriosos de la industria, y más si consideramos que desde el año 2000 el mundo ha estado consumiendo anualmente unos 25,5 KMB de petróleo convencional.

Figura 2. Descubrimientos globales anuales de petróleo convencional desde 1947 ( Bloomberg, 2017) 


Como podemos deducir de esa figura, durante bastante tiempo no reemplazamos lo que consumimos. Excepto en 2000 (cuando se produjeron 35 KMB), todos los años la producción ha sido inferior a los 25 KMB. Eso quiere decir, básicamente, que la industria petrolera global ha estado sobreviviendo gracias a su cartilla de ahorros, es decir, al petróleo encontrado en años anteriores.

Mientras tanto, el volumen de recursos convencionales aprobado en 2016 cayó hasta los 4,7 KMB, un tercio menos que el año anterior y llegó a su nivel mínimo desde la década de 1940 (Figura 3). Esa caída en picado es consecuencia de que muchos inversores tradicionales del sector están retirando sus fondos de un negocio inseguro debido a los bajos precios del petróleo, a la disminución de las reservas probadas (Figura 4) y a la desconfianza hacia un negocio que está alterando el equilibrio climático global y muestra signos claros de derrumbe para quien quiera verlos.

Figura 3. Recursos de crudo convencional descubiertos y aprobados en el Siglo XXI (Agencia Internacional de la Energía, 2017).


Los informes anuales de las 67 compañías petroleras que cotizan en la Bolsa de Estados Unidos y que, por lo tanto, están obligadas todos los años a comunicar oficialmente sus reservas probadas a la Comisión del Mercado de Valores (SEC), muestran que las reservas de líquidos del petróleo disminuyeron en 2016 por segundo año consecutivo. La disminución se concentró sobre todo en unas cuantas empresas que redujeron sus reservas estimadas de arenas asfálticas canadienses. En conjunto, su producción global de petróleo crudo y otros líquidos promedió 24 MB/día durante 2016, alrededor del 25% del total mundial. Las reservas probadas de esas compañías disminuyeron desde los 116 KMB en 2014 a 100 KMB en 2016. (Figura 4)….



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jueves, 14 de septiembre de 2017

Agency votes to begin effort to ban fracking, horizontal drilling in US basin








Houston (Platts)
13 Sep 2017



A joint federal-state commission on Wednesday voted to move ahead with a rulemaking that would prohibit horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing across a large swath of eastern Pennsylvania, as well as the states of New York, Delaware and New Jersey.

In a meeting of the board of the Delaware Basin River Commission, commissioners voted to publish for public comment a set of revised draft regulations for drilling operations within the river basin, which includes portions of the Marcellus Shale.

The vote was 3-1-1, with representatives of Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania voting yes, the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal government's representative voting no, and the New Jersey representative abstaining, Kate Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the DRBC, said.

Since the vote was a procedural resolution, no public hearing on it was required prior to commission consideration, Schmidt said.

About 25 people spoke during the meeting's open public comment session, which began at the conclusion of the business meeting and lasted one hour.

Most of the comments from those who spoke supported a ban on gas development in the Delaware River Basin, she said.

The revised draft regulations, which have been in the offing for about seven years, would prohibit the use of horizontal drilling and fracking in the basin, but would provide for the "safe and protective storage, treatment and disposal" of wastewater from horizontal drilling and fracking operations outside of the basin.

The proposed rules would also regulate the inter-basin transfer of fresh water and wastewater.

In the next step of the rulemaking process, the commission will issue revised draft regulations on or before November 30. The rulemaking process will require one or more public hearings and a written comment period and the commissioners are expected to adopt the final rules sometime in 2018, Schmidt said.

The DRBC vote is likely to re-ignite a long-simmering debate over whether the commission has the authority to ban fracking within the basin.

The river basin region has been under a fracking moratorium since 2010, when the commission launched a study on the impacts of the commonly employed drilling completion technique.

In the meantime, horizontal drilling and fracking have been used to great effect to unlock gas in areas just outside the Delaware River Basin, particularly in some counties in Pennsylvania. New York, where a statewide fracking ban already is in effect, is less likely to be affected by a fracking ban in the Delaware River Basin.

Advocates for the gas industry were quick to decry the commission's decision, while environmental groups argued the DRBC's proposed regulations do not go far enough to protect the waters of the basin.

Gas industry consultant Tom Shepstone said it is difficult to estimate how much gas will be locked up by the DRBC fracking ban. In an interview Wednesday, he said at least three producers -- Chesapeake Energy, Newfield and Hess -- have drilled exploratory wells in the region that would be impacted by the proposed ban, but because that data is still considered proprietary, "you wouldn't know what the actual production could be."

Shepstone estimated that a 1,100 square mile region of the upper Delaware River Basin in Pennsylvania and New York could be prospective for gas production, with about a third of that area on the Pennsylvania side of the state line.

In an interview, Nicole Jacobs, a spokeswoman for industry advocacy organization Energy in Depth, said the commission's vote does not change the fact that the DRBC should not have the authority to regulate drilling and fracking in the first place.

She said a lawsuit pending in the federal 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to result in a ruling on the extent of the commission's authority over gas development.

In addition, Jacobs said there is no evidence of the alleged harm from fracking that would warrant a ban on the practice. "Pennsylvania is no stranger to oil and gas development," she said…



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I Curso de pastoreo en Cantabria










miércoles, 13 de septiembre de 2017

Informe ONU 2017: Aguas residuales, el recurso no explotado




United Nations report warns over fracking



Protestors have become a regu;ar site outside the fracking site on Preston New Road, Little Plumpton





Lancashire Post
By Digital Reporter
Tuesday 12 September 2017



Anti-fracking campaigners have welcomed a United Nations report that warns that the Government is “flouting” its duty to protect its citizens from illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution.


The report centres on traffic pollution, but makes special mention of fracking.

It says: “Regulations on fracking are complex and split between several regulators, and do not appear to be sufficiently stringent .

” It also says that it relies too much on “self-monitoring by the oil and gas industry.”

Fracking in Lancashire has proved controversial, and has attracted large protests.

A spokesman from the Preston New Road Action Group said: “It is significant to note that the UN’s special rapporteur highlighted Lancashire in his report.

“He also identified that the UK’s fracking regulations are ‘complex, split between several regulators and do not appear to be sufficiently stringent.’

“He indicated this would increase the risk of water pollution.

“Preston New Road Action Group have repeatedly drawn attention to the UK’s disconnected fracking regulators and potential loopholes for the industry to abuse.

“Cuadrilla have already demonstrated that they will flout the rules for their own benefit by bringing the rig onto site outside the permitted hours.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We have been clear that shale development in the UK must be safe and environmentally sound.

 “The UK has a strong regulatory system which provides a comprehensive regime for exploratory activities.

“It uses existing regulators with long-standing experience of regulating against different sectors in their area of specialisation.”


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El papa Francisco, sobre el cambio climático: "El hombre es un estúpido, un testarudo que no ve"



Stefano Rellandini / Reuters




RT
12 de septiembre de 2017



El pontífice criticó la inconsciencia humana ante el calentamiento global con el telón de fondo de las catástrofe provocadas por varios huracanes en el Atlántico.


El máximo representante de la Iglesia católica y la ciencia parecen estar de acuerdo en algo: los efectos del cambio climático son evidentes y peligrosos y es imprescindible actuar correctamente para revertir la situación. "Quien niega el cambio climático tiene que ir a loscientíficos y preguntarles a ellos. Son claros y precisos", declaró el papa Francisco con seriedad, en una rueda de prensa ofrecida en el avión en el que regresaba a Roma tras su visita a Colombia.

El pontífice citó el Antiguo Testamento para aludir a la actual situación y criticar la pasividad generalizada ante el avance del calentamiento global: "El hombre es un estúpido, es un testarudo que no ve. Es el único animal que tropieza dos veces con la misma piedra". La máxima autoridad de la Iglesia católica se refirió a unas recientes imágenes del deshielo del Polo Norte y a un estudio universitario que "decía que tenemos solo tres años para ir para atrás y no sé si son tres años pero, si no volvemos para atrás, será el final".

Desde la óptica del papa Francisco, todos los humanos tienen un grado de responsabilidad: "Cada persona tiene su responsabilidad, los políticos tienen las suyas". El líder religioso insistió en que los efectos del cambio climático son claros y en que "los científicos señalan claramente cuál es el camino a seguir".

Las declaraciones del papa llegan poco después de se hayan producido cuatro huracanes en el océano Atlántico, provocando la muerte de decenas de personas y gravísimos daños materiales. "Tenemos que tomarlo con seriedad. No podemos bromear sobre esto", concluyó el pontífice.



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martes, 12 de septiembre de 2017

The fragile framework



“Fracking” y mineras contaminan fuentes de agua en Puebla y el gobierno hace caso omiso, denuncia la ONU







Periódico Central
Por Esteban de Jesús López
11 de septiembre de 2017


En un reporte de la organización se expusieron los casos de contaminación y polución de fuentes de agua provocados por las mineras, plantas hidroeléctricas, “fracking” y “el uso incontrolado” de plaguicidas, en estados como Veracruz, Puebla, Coahuila, Nuevo León y Tamaulipas.


El uso de plantas hidroeléctricas y extracción de hidrocarburos a través de la técnica “Fracking” por parte de los proyectos mineros e industriales, han contaminado de manera preocupante las fuentes de agua en Puebla, según lo reveló un informe de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU).

El documento del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos (ACNUDH) refiere que esta información fue recabada por un relator especial que estuvo en México del 2 al 12 de mayo para elaborar el informe sobre el derecho humano al agua potable y su saneamiento.

Ahí se expusieron los casos de contaminación y polución de fuentes de agua provocados por las mineras, plantas hidroeléctricas, “fracking” y “el uso incontrolado” de plaguicidas, en estados como Veracruz, Puebla, Coahuila, Nuevo León y Tamaulipas.

En muchos casos generó problemas ambientales de manera directa e indirecta, afectando la calidad del agua potable y el medio ambiente.

Teniendo en cuenta que varios contaminantes no quedan suficientemente eliminados por las plantas de tratamiento y que en algunos casos el agua se consume directamente de las fuentes. Por ejemplo, en localidades donde no se ofrece más que un suministro esporádico y poco fiable de agua corriente, el consumo de las comunidades depende mucho de los ríos, los manantiales, los arroyos y los pozos locales”, señala el documento.

La ONU además acusó que las comunidades afectadas manifestaron “frustración” ya que los gobiernos no atienden sus quejas, además de que no los toman en cuenta antes de diseñar y ejecutar los proyectos. La Organización de las Naciones Unidas dijo que lo más preocupante es que al parecer no importa a las autoridades y el sector privado el derecho al agua de los pobladores.

Detallaron que incluso un representante indígena declaró al relator especial que “las fuentes de donde toman nuestra agua son las mismas que utilizan las empresas de hidrocarburos. Sentimos que el agua está enferma y que nosotros también nos enfermamos, porque el agua está enferma”.

La ONU advierte que para el año 2030 en algunas de las regiones hidrológico-administrativas de México los recursos renovables de agua “llegarán a niveles cercanos o inferiores a 1.000 m3 por habitante y año”, situación calificada como escasez de agua.

En noviembre de 2016 el Centro de Análisis e Investigación Fundar hizo un estudio llamado “El sector de los hidrocarburos en la Reforma Energética: retrocesos y perspectivas”,  en el que reveló que Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) contaba con 233 pozos en Puebla para llevar a cabo la fracturación hidráulica.

En dicho informe se demostró que Puebla ocupó el segundo lugar con más perforaciones solo por debajo de Veracruz  con 349, en tercer lugar Nuevo León con 182; Tamaulipas tiene 100 pozos; Coahuila con 47  y Tabasco 13. En ese momento se contabilizaron 924 pozos en total…


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