Update made to Onshore oil and gas exploration in the UK: regulation and best practice England document

17 December 2015 9:37am

Update made to Onshore oil and gas exploration in the UK: regulation and best practice England document

See  HERE for document.

And HERE for a powerpoint presentation which goes through all the stages needed to actually put a well in place to Frack shale or extract CBM.

14th Landward Licensing Round - Four blocks of land licenced for Coal Bed Methane exploitation in Herefordshire/Forest of Dean/Gloucestershire area

14th Landward Licensing Round - Four blocks of land licenced for Coal Bed Methane exploitation in Herefordshire/Forest of Dean/Gloucestershire area

 Map of the area in S Herefordshire/Gloucestershire/Forest of Dean affected by this can be found HERE.  These four licences allow the operator to drill  in each area to extract Coal Based Methane (CBM). 
Certain processes capture native hydrocarbons, which originate in coal seams. The exploitation of these require permission from the Coal Authority (for access to the coal) and a licence from DECC (for capture of the hydrocarbons). The processes include Coal Bed Methane (CBM) which liberates native methane from virgin coal seams and vent gas (also called mines gas) which captures methane from working or disused mines.

The licences have been given to 

Partners	SOUTH WESTERN ENERGY LIMITED
Contact	Mr Gerwyn Williams
Address	Unit 9 Bridgend Gusiness Center, Bridgend, CF31 3SH
e-mail	info@transgas.co.uk

 From the Oil and Gas Authority website today 17th Dec 2015.

"On 17 December 2015, the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) announced that licences for a total of 159 blocks were formally offered to successful applicants under the 14th Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round
The 14th Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round was launched on 28 July 2014 and closed on 28 October 2014. A total of 95 applications were received from 47 companies covering 295 Ordnance Survey Blocks. Following scrutiny of the applicants’ competency, financial viability, environmental awareness and geotechnical analysis, and following the decision not to award licences in Scotland and Wales, 159 blocks were taken forward for further consideration.
In August 2015, the OGA announced its intention to offer licences covering 27 blocks. These blocks did not require further environmental assessment under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010 (the Habitats Regulations). At this time, the OGA launched a consultation relating to a further 132 blocks that were subjected to further detailed assessment in accordance with the Habitats Regulations, and a public consultation on that assessment was carried out. Following the conclusion of the consultation process, the OGA is now satisfied that the approval of the 14th Licensing Round, and the award of each of the licences under the Round, will not have an adverse effect on the integrity of any protected European site. As a result, the OGA is offering licences for a total of 159 blocks. For 75 of these blocks, the licence will contain a condition that prohibits all or specific activities in parts of the block.
Details of the offers to successful applicants are provided below.

• 14th Onshore Licensing Round Offers by Operator (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 24.9KB)

• 14th Onshore Licensing Round contact details (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 12.4KB)

• Map showing blocks offered under 14th Onshore Licensing Round (PDF, 1.18MB, 1 page)

This interactive map has been produced by the OGA to assist companies and members of the public with information that will help them understand oil and gas exploration and production activity onshore in Great Britain including those areas already under licence and those areas offered under the OGA’s 14th Onshore Licensing Round."

Click here to view the overall composition of fracturing fluid used in 2011 by Cudrilla at Barton Moss.

New series of links on DECC website about Fracking

DECC published an interesting series of documents on 26 March 2014 (see link, below) There are lots of documents linked to on this page, which set out the Government position on Fracking.

 Developing shale gas and oil in the UK

Overview

The government believes that shale gas has the potential to provide the UK with greater energy security, growth and jobs. We are encouraging safe and environmentally sound exploration to determine this potential.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a technique used in the extraction of gas from shale rock and has been extensively used over the last 60 years – it is estimated that more than 2.5 million wells have been fracked worldwide.
The UK has a strong regulatory regime for exploratory activities but we want to continuously improve it. The UK has over 50 years of experience of regulating the onshore oil and gas industry nationally.

DECC Consultation now open

DECC further onshore oil and gas licensing consultation is now Open
It runs from 17 Dec 2013 to 28 Mar 2014

PLEASE please make your views about possible Fracking in Herefordshire ( and elsewhere!) known to DECC using their online survey form! This is part of the consultation on the next round of onshore oil and gas licencing - where it will be and who will be affected.

Herefordshire IS in the area under discussion.

 

Citizen Space - Consultation on the Environmental Report for further onshore oil and gas licensing

econsultation.decc.gov.uk

Co-operative position on Shale Gas

The Co-operative is campaigning for a clean energy revolution. As part of this campaign they are calling for a moratorium on the development of shale gas and 'fracking' in the UK.

An excellent outline of exactly why extracting Shale gas is a bad idea is given here in a report  by researchers at Tyndall Manchester, who released an assessment of the environmental impact of shale gas expansion. This latest report, commissioned by The Cooperative, updates their January 2011 work. 

Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change at Tyndall Manchester said:

“As the Government’s Committee on Climate Change make clear, for the UK to meet its binding carbon targets, electricity needs to be decarbonised by 2030 with domestic heating having moved from high carbon gas to low-carbon electricity.”
“With so little time to meet these commitments, there is no meaningful emissions allowance available for shale gas. Moreover, pursuing shale gas electricity risks displacing urgently required investments in genuinely low carbon energy supply. Consequently, the Government faces a difficult choice; to lead a new and low-carbon energy revolution or stick with high carbon fossil fuels, forgo its emission targets and relinquish its hard won international reputation on climate change.”

An excellent interview with Professor Anderson can be found here




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Onshore mineral resource maps

Onshore mineral resource maps

This site is a really useful resource,showing all the data on the ‘county maps’ merged to produce an online Minerals Information GIS for each English region

• Mineral resource maps in England and parts of South Wales
• Mineral resource maps in Scotland
• Mineral resource maps in Wales
• Aggregates safeguarding maps in Wales
• Mineral resource maps in Northern Ireland

The British Geological Survey was commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now DCLG), through the research project Mineral Resource information in Support of National, Regional and Local Planning, to prepare a series of ‘county’ mineral resource maps. This work was completed in early 2006 and a series of digitally generated maps at a scale of 1:100 000 are available. These maps cover 44 administrative areas or groups of administrative areas, giving information for the whole of England and parts of South Wales.
Four major elements of information are presented on the summary maps:

• the geological distribution of all onshore mineral resources the location of mineral extraction sites
• the extent of mineral planning permissions and licences for coal extraction
• the extent of selected landscape and nature–conservation designations (National Parks, AONBs, SSSIs, NNRs and scheduled monuments).

This is an extract from the ( much larger) map for Herefordshire and Worcestershire, showing oil wells and coalfields.