Nov 2014 UPDATE – For a full round-up of the situation in Scotland click here… Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith is a senior adviser to the National Toxics Network (NTN) and recently coauthored NTN’s report on the chemical impacts of hydraulic fracturing in the Australian shale and coal seam gas industry. Mariann has been visiting communities and […]
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Cuadrilla boss gave $30m bribe to Azerbaijan strongman
Lord Browne, president of UK fracker Cuadrilla Resources, paid an illegal $30m “sweetener” to an Azerbaijani oil company in the early 1990s, according to the Guardian’s investigative journalist Greg Palast. In his book, Vulture’s Picnic, Palast documents how an associate of Lord Browne accompanied ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher on a “business trip” to Azerbaijan (see […]
Wells, Wells And More Fracking Wells
- Fracking requires large numbers of wells
- Conventional well can drain large area
- For impermeable rock many wells required
- Often 8 wells per square mile or more
- Tens of thousands drilled in US already
- Largest onshore gas field in UK was 8 wells
- Fracking companies play down the scale
- What they say to investors most accurate
- Well numbers can be estimated from reserves
- Adds up to tens of thousands of wells across UK
- Plus pads, pipelines, compressor stations etc.
First UK fracking leak as Dart Energy wells fail
The Scottish Herald today reported the UK’s first fracking leak – at Coal Bed Methane (CBM) wells near Canonbie in Scotland. The leak – at wells owned by Dart Energy – confirm anecdotal evidence from locals who have – over the last two years – periodically noticed gas in their water supply. The leak is […]
Browne waves willy: but can Cuadrilla progress with just one borehole?
Cuadrilla Chairman and government employee John Browne has been out in public recently. In an interview with the UK’s Guardian, the Cabinet Office non-executive said he would invest “as much as it takes” to launch shale gas in the UK. Unsurprisingly, the Fracking Czar began blowing his trumpet just as Cuadrilla entered final negotiations with […]
Annas Road Update – Cuadrilla contractor starts drilling 100`s of holes for sesimic monitoring equipment
Residents north of the Ribble Estuary in Lancashire have began to notice Cuadrilla’s advance guard moving into the area. PR Marriott drill rigs will be in fields for the next few months ahead of attempts to drill and frack the first horizontal shale well in the country. As Cuadrilla step up the PR offensive preventing […]
Spin-busting: What is actually going on in Lancashire?
January 2013 Round Up Whichever way you look at it, Cuadrilla Resources have had a pretty ropey couple of years. The squeaky clean, everything by the book shale pioneers induced an earthquake back in April 2011 and have since been central to a very public unfolding of the UK shale story. The pressure has had […]
Pro-fracking Speaker gets MOONED at Leeds Uni!
Protestors with “FRACK-OFF” written on their arses mooned a pro-fracking lecture at Leeds Uni. The talk, The Science of Fracking – Societal Issues and Perceptions, by Dale Leckie of Canadian Oil and Gas company Nexen Inc was organised by the Leeds University Centre for Integrated Petroleum Engineering and Geoscience. Leckie accused critics of being unscientific […]