Secretive Irish Climate Science Denier Group Steps Up 'Bizarre' Parliamentary Lobbying 22:27 Sep 27 0 comments EU Commission proposes new strict EU-wide rules on single-use plastics 12:29 May 29 0 comments Protecting WIldlife in Ireland from Hedge Cutting and Gorse Burning 23:37 Feb 23 0 comments WRECK THE « CLIMATE CHANCE » SUMMIT! At Nantes, France, from 26 to 28 September 2016 20:04 Jul 17 0 comments Why the corporate capture of COP21 means we must Kick Big Polluters Out of climate policy 22:47 Dec 03 3 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Anti-EmpireNorth Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi? Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi? Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi? ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi? US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
Reeves?s Simplistic Thinking Spawned This Budget from Hell Mon Dec 23, 2024 15:44 | David Craig
British Drivers Steering Away From New Cars In Their Droves Mon Dec 23, 2024 13:00 | Sallust
Britain on Brink of Recession After Growth Revised to Zero Following Reeves?s Horror Budget Mon Dec 23, 2024 11:09 | Will Jones
What Fresh Hell is This? The Climate and Nature Bill Mon Dec 23, 2024 09:00 | Paul Homewood
The Daily Sceptic Christmas Appeal Mon Dec 23, 2024 07:00 | Toby Young
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionVoltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en |
Shale gas firms face EU methane emissions regulation
national |
environment |
press release
Monday October 07, 2013 23:52 by p mc c - UFA Press office info at unitedfarmers dot ie
Shale gas companies operating in Europe will soon have to monitor, log and account for methane emissions at drill sites or else face regulation, the EU’s top climate officer has said. The amount of methane released into the atmosphere during shale gas drills is disputed, with one new industry-funded report suggesting it could be less than previously thought. Environmental Impact Assessment vote Debate has split along unconventional lines, with Conservative and Liberal MEPs whose constituencies cover potential shale gas sites taking uncharacteristically environmentally-friendly positions. At this stage, it is unclear whether impact assessments would include testing for methane leaks. But the issue is unlikely to be ignored in the long-term. “We are learning that there are severe problems with the development of methane,” Delbeke said. Even so, amendments to the EIA bill could exempt shale gas drill sites that retrieve less than 500,000 cubic metres per day from assessments. That figure compares to existing laws for conventional fuels, but would open the door to unregulated hydraulic fracturing. In the US, the maximum foreseeable production rate of drills in the Marcellus shale formation in the Appalachian basin is 250,000 cubic metres, and figures for the Haynesville shale basin, and Barnett shale basin are less than that. According to David Hughes, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute in the US, any drill retrieving 500,000 cubic metres “would be an extremely rare well”. The first Polish shale gas well in Lebien has a daily production rate of just 8,000 cubic metres per day, a sum that Lane Energy - the ConocoPhillips subsidiary running it - described “an amount unseen in Europe to date”. Some scientists question whether such drill sites will ever face meaningful regulation. Battle of the studies “Industry will have to provide information in Europe, perhaps” said Professor Robert Howarth of Cornell University in emailed comments, “but how will anyone know if the information is accurate?” “Industry certainly has a very strong interest in trying to project that methane emissions are low,” he added. A 2011 Cornell University study that Howarth co-authored found that methane emissions from shale gas drills could have a carbon footprint between 20% and 100% greater than coal. The methane readings in the study were obtained from overhead airplane samples. But a research team led by Dr Allen at the University of Texas, which was given unprecedented access to shale gas sites at ground level, has found emissions from well ‘completions’ lower than previously thought, even if leaks from pneumatic controllers and equipment were higher. Measurements were taken at 190 production sites owned by nine US companies – such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell – that collectively own nearly 12% of the country’s shale wells. Total methane emissions were 0.42% of gross gas production, Allen found, compared to the 0.47% logged in the 2011 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inventory. Several other studies had estimated higher methane findings but Allen told EurActiv that his team had been granted unique access to shale sites, allowing them to exclude methane emissions from other sources, such as oil wells, which could distort results. “Typically when one flies over a geological region, like Utah, you are measuring not only gas production but also gathering, clean up operations, initial transmission and compression, a variety of parts of the supply chain that will lead to differences,” he said. Industry-funded research Critics say that Allen’s team was industry-funded and had to inform shale gas companies of the dates and sites they wanted to visit, up to a week in advance. Nine of the 12 members of the report’s steering committee come from the oil and gas industry, they say. Allen accepts that his team did not measure methane emissions from midstream and downstream shale production – in processing units, pipelines, storage and distribution systems – but new papers measuring these will be released in the months ahead. Drew Nelson from the Environmental Defense Fund, a green group which is supporting all these studies, said that Allen’s research paper suggested “a net benefit for the climate by switching from coal to shale gas”. “The study shows that regulation in the US works,” he said. “Green completion is highly effective and there are opportunities to reduce leaks even more.” The EPA has determined that all shale gas firms must, by 2015, use ‘green completion’ techniques that capture methane so that it can be sold. Flaring criticisms “That's the best environmentally, although some methane is still probably released during the operation,” Howarth said. “But it has not been commonly done in the US. It takes time, and companies would rather push ahead as fast as they can and move on to develop and frack another well.” Howarth professed himself “very worried” that exemptions already granted to industry would be incrementally added to, “and I worry about how the regulations will be enforced.” “[The] EPA does not intend to send inspectors out to observe what is going on but instead will rely on industry reporting of what they are doing. Venting is invisible to the naked eye. Unwatched rigs seem likely to cheat at least some times, given the history of the US oil and gas industry in complying with regulations in the past,” he said. Venting methane into the sky is the most environmentally damaging disposal method. Flaring is also commonly used to prevent gas from reaching the atmosphere, and this was observed in Allen’s paper. But public hostility could obstruct its use in a more densely-populated Europe, given the jet-like noise and flames – sometimes towering hundreds of feet in the air – that flaring can create. “I can’t see a company winning their public fight [to drill] if there is going to be a huge flame day or night which is a symbol of spoiling resources,” Delbeke said. Roland Festor, OGP’s EU affairs director said that the industry was doing all it could to stop the practice of flaring. “Unfortunately, sometimes there are no (alternative) solutions except stopping to produce oil and gas,” he said. POSITIONS:
“One of the findings of Dr Allen’s study is that if you use the best available technology you can mitigate some risk and in that sense, the industry could deal with some of these climate impacts,” said Antoine Simon, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth Europe. “In that sense it is important that the Commission makes the use of these technologies mandatory for the industry and not just voluntary.” NEXT STEPS: · Dec. 2013: European Commission to unveil results of public consultation on unconventional fossil fuels, including shale gas, and decide on regulatory steps. Arthur Neslen EXTERNAL LINKS EU official documents
Reports
United Farmers Association
National press and information office.
|