Fracking in the UK: is it going to be a "Bumpy Ride"??

[Bob]

If one remembers the frak'ing issue in Lancashire UK a while back, protesters saying no way... well.

UK government has just approved their pet oil company, Cuadrilla to go ahead and FRAK TWO horizontal wells that they drilled underneath Preston New Road in Little Plumpton.

The law says, if earthquakes start FRAK'ing operations MUST STOP. Cuadrilla says they will not cause any damage..

If the people note vibration, earthquakes, parts of their buildings starting to crumble, they should report immediately..

The wells were drilled 2,273-2,341-m TVD with a 782-m lateral (thats the horizontal component).

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-44941862

6 Protesters have been arrested so far:


https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/FED9/production/_94014256_frackingbbc.jpg


Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said all the necessary environmental and health and safety measures has been met.


A spokesman for the protesters said: "This industry has gone to extreme and expensive lengths to manipulate the law, via a court injunction, to prevent protest in meaningful forms."

Anti-fracking protests have taken place at the site for several months but this is the first challenge to the injunction since it was extended until 2020 earlier in July.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-fracking-earthquakes-cause-shale-gas-seismic-events-government-planning-a8363411.html

Fracking has already been linked to seismic activity in Lancashire, after Prof Styles warned of the dangers of extracting gas at Cuadrilla’s Preese Hall site.

In 2011, the British Geological Survey recorded a tremor at that site with a 2.4 magnitude followed by another with a 3.2 magnitude. The events led to ban on all operations in the area.

So Cuadrilla lies. Quakes were already reported at another Cuadrilla well site.

[Mari]

Quote Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said 'all the necessary environmental and health and safety measures has been met.'

Yeah....she would say that, wouldn't she? they're ALL in the payroll of the Big Energy Corps. I think ALL the good people of Lancashire need to urgently swell their ranks for this one & support those at Little Plumpton!

[avid]

As we are having a depletion of water issue, including folk being poisoned by contaminated borehole water which may include Radon, why would fracking be allowed as the usage of water is so wasteful?

The Lake District is being trashed by United Utilities, a company with shareholders and a monopoly in resources.
There are hugely contentious issues with their work in Ennerdale, using a smokescreen of rare freshwater pearl mussels to excuse themselves of destroying an important weir, privatising land upriver on the Ehen, and links to the ‘rewilding’ of Ennerdale...

Local folk in Copeland and south Allerdale now on 50/50 borehole (including haematite mine workings) Ennerdale water mix, also with copper and black detritus in the supply. Pets dying, fish tanks dead, people with sickness and diarrohea. Why this now...? They are more than likely planning to make an underground depository for a nuclear waste facility, which we absolutely refused three years ago. Since then, the government moved the goalposts to enable them, in the interests of national security, to bury whatever they want, wherever they want.

Funnily enough, the most appropriate and geologically safe depository would be under London...

The unstable strata in north west Cumbria is very contentious, but just so happens to be within a few miles of Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. Unforgiveable government tyranny as usual.

Now we are to face more underground disruption with Cuadrilla going ahead with fracking on the borders of our area. Disgraceful.

[Satori]

As we are having a depletion of water issue, including folk being poisoned by contaminated borehole water which may include Radon, why would fracking be allowed as the usage of water is so wasteful?

The Lake District is being trashed by United Utilities, a company with shareholders and a monopoly in resources.
There are hugely contentious issues with their work in Ennerdale, using a smokescreen of rare freshwater pearl mussels to excuse themselves of destroying an important weir, privatising land upriver on the Ehen, and links to the ‘rewilding’ of Ennerdale...

Local folk in Copeland and south Allerdale now on 50/50 borehole (including haematite mine workings) Ennerdale water mix, also with copper and black detritus in the supply. Pets dying, fish tanks dead, people with sickness and diarrohea. Why this now...? They are more than likely planning to make an underground depository for a nuclear waste facility, which we absolutely refused three years ago. Since then, the government moved the goalposts to enable them, in the interests of national security, to bury whatever they want, wherever they want.

Funnily enough, the most appropriate and geologically safe depository would be under London...

The unstable strata in north west Cumbria is very contentious, but just so happens to be within a few miles of Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. Unforgiveable government tyranny as usual.

Now we are to face more underground disruption with Cuadrilla going ahead with fracking on the borders of our area. Disgraceful.

Fracturing and acidizing, "frac'ing", otherwise known in the US industry as a product service line called "production enhancement," uses an inordinately large quantity of water. Millions of gallons per well. The water is supposed to be "fresh" water before it is mixed in totes and blenders with a variety of chemicals and reagents to create a "fluid system" designed to enhance the production of gas and oil from a well. The fluid system is introduced into the well head at extremely high pressure to fracture the formation and, combined with a proppant (composed of sand and resins), release the oil and gas.

The water goes into the blenders, and often directly into the well head before the fluid system, fresh, but what does return in the flow back is an environmental hazard. There are regulations about how to dispose of or remediate the water, but like most things of this nature, the laws and regulations are honored in the breach, if at all.

[Bob]

"all necessary health and safety measures have been met" - Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said..

A 2.3 and a 1.5 seismic event was felt in BlackPool in May 2011.

"The seismic events were due to an unusual combination of geology at the well site coupled with the pressure exerted by water injection as part of operations,” Cuadrilla added, saying that this combination of geological factors was extremely rare and would be unlikely to occur together again at future well sites... Therefore it seems Claire Perry is confident that Cuadrilla's crystal ball is highly accurate and that they absolutely know the geology, faults (and all the hidden faults) in the area of the new drill sites.

In the US, direct shallow water table contamination happens from old wells which have lost cement to rock/soil integrity over the years. Fluids from formations at depths reached by the old wells can be "refilled" by fraking water for instance, or waste injection water, should an old well somewhere nearby (up to 20 miles away is realistic based on the quakes experienced in Oklahoma, USA).. When the refilling happens to the formation, any old wells have a lower to upper migration of liquid, and if the well is capped, the fluid then travels through the casing cracks into the upper sand formations (such as potable water tables).

The company said to handle any potential quakes happening, it will modify the amount of fluid it use and have installed a seismic early warning system. Their seismic monitoring system looks for micro-seismic events.

Mark Miller, chief executive of Cuadrilla apparently doesn't like protesters on-site. Says its too dangerous to be there, and would rather if they are concerned meet at the company and have a nice peaceful sitdown discussion with the experts in the company who will 'xplain it to them' in a way they will understand (a bit paraphrased, but one can get the idea)..

Do you think your vote of protest matters? Apparently not one IOTA - from http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06073/SN06073.pdf which is the document which states the RULES UK uses in wells and fracking, over 4000 protests were received by the government. (Commons Library Briefing, 4 January 2017)

This is some of the logic of how the drilling and facking gets passed (from the aforementioned document):


A May 2013 report from the Institute of Directors presented a scenario
in which UK shale gas production could attract investment of £3.7
billion per year and support up to 74,000 jobs, often focused in regions
with currently high unemployment and in sectors such as
manufacturing.

It also suggested shale gas production could potentially
contribute significant tax revenue.

If Fracking in UK is so "friendly" and 'non-damaging', HOW COME the Lords Report specifically says NO FRACKING will happen at certain locations that they deem "important" to them: "access rights to be excluded from protected areas such as National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. So we are told that Fracking and drilling operations is safe, won't create any damage, nothing to worry about the contaminated waste water and fluids from fracking... BUT that certain locations WILL be excluded? Doublespeak once again? Or is it the common man, their properties, farms just simply "not important enough.."

Backchannel, or how "Communities" were lured to accept the wells and fracking:

During the Commons Committee Stage, a set of amendments relating to community benefits was tabled with the aim of providing clearer assurance and structure around the way contributions from fracking development would be spent in communities.

The then Minister, Amber Rudd, explained that the industry had agreed to pay £100,000 to communities per hydraulically-fractured well site at exploratory stage, and 1% of revenue if it successfully goes into production. In addition, she stated that the industry had confirmed that operators would contribute a voluntary one-off payment of £20,000 for the right to use deep-level land for each unique lateral well that extends by more than 200 metres, and would notify the public when exercising this power.

A promised pay-off to the "Community", exactly who's pocket or coffers do those payments go into?

Who is going to pay for building/structure damage from the "improbable" earthquakes? If a methane release happens into the air, or into the water table, who is going to pay for that? Who will do water table water quality monitoring at the homes and farms around the wells? Is the government (which department) going to provide a phone number, and contact details to report damage or concerns or anomalies in their farm animals, or their water?


https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/30083701.jpg

[norman]

I struggle to really believe that going to such extreme measures to squeeze dregs from rocks is what they say it is about.

There has to be at least a dual purpose to it [?]

[Satori]

"all necessary health and safety measures have been met" - Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said..

A 2.3 and a 1.5 seismic event was felt in BlackPool in May 2011.

"The seismic events were due to an unusual combination of geology at the well site coupled with the pressure exerted by water injection as part of operations,” Cuadrilla added, saying that this combination of geological factors was extremely rare and would be unlikely to occur together again at future well sites... Therefore it seems Claire Perry is confident that Cuadrilla's crystal ball is highly accurate and that they absolutely know the geology, faults (and all the hidden faults) in the area of the new drill sites.

In the US, direct shallow water table contamination happens from old wells which have lost cement to rock/soil integrity over the years. Fluids from formations at depths reached by the old wells can be "refilled" by fraking water for instance, or waste injection water, should an old well somewhere nearby (up to 20 miles away is realistic based on the quakes experienced in Oklahoma, USA).. When the refilling happens to the formation, any old wells have a lower to upper migration of liquid, and if the well is capped, the fluid then travels through the casing cracks into the upper sand formations (such as potable water tables).

The company said to handle any potential quakes happening, it will modify the amount of fluid it use and have installed a seismic early warning system. Their seismic monitoring system looks for micro-seismic events.

Mark Miller, chief executive of Cuadrilla apparently doesn't like protesters on-site. Says its too dangerous to be there, and would rather if they are concerned meet at the company and have a nice peaceful sitdown discussion with the experts in the company who will 'xplain it to them' in a way they will understand (a bit paraphrased, but one can get the idea)..

Do you think your vote of protest matters? Apparently not one IOTA - from http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06073/SN06073.pdf which is the document which states the RULES UK uses in wells and fracking, over 4000 protests were received by the government. (Commons Library Briefing, 4 January 2017)

This is some of the logic of how the drilling and facking gets passed (from the aforementioned document):


A May 2013 report from the Institute of Directors presented a scenario
in which UK shale gas production could attract investment of £3.7
billion per year and support up to 74,000 jobs, often focused in regions
with currently high unemployment and in sectors such as
manufacturing.

It also suggested shale gas production could potentially
contribute significant tax revenue.

If Fracking in UK is so "friendly" and 'non-damaging', HOW COME the Lords Report specifically says NO FRACKING will happen at certain locations that they deem "important" to them: "access rights to be excluded from protected areas such as National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. So we are told that Fracking and drilling operations is safe, won't create any damage, nothing to worry about the contaminated waste water and fluids from fracking... BUT that certain locations WILL be excluded? Doublespeak once again? Or is it the common man, their properties, farms just simply "not important enough.."

Backchannel, or how "Communities" were lured to accept the wells and fracking:

During the Commons Committee Stage, a set of amendments relating to community benefits was tabled with the aim of providing clearer assurance and structure around the way contributions from fracking development would be spent in communities.

The then Minister, Amber Rudd, explained that the industry had agreed to pay £100,000 to communities per hydraulically-fractured well site at exploratory stage, and 1% of revenue if it successfully goes into production. In addition, she stated that the industry had confirmed that operators would contribute a voluntary one-off payment of £20,000 for the right to use deep-level land for each unique lateral well that extends by more than 200 metres, and would notify the public when exercising this power.

A promised pay-off to the "Community", exactly who's pocket or coffers do those payments go into?

Who is going to pay for building/structure damage from the "improbable" earthquakes? If a methane release happens into the air, or into the water table, who is going to pay for that? Who will do water table water quality monitoring at the homes and farms around the wells? Is the government (which department) going to provide a phone number, and contact details to report damage or concerns or anomalies in their farm animals, or their water?


https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/30083701.jpg

Thanks for the illustration Bob.

Frac'ing has been around since at least the 1960s. But it was the ability to drill horizontally, as well as other innovations in chemicals, in the past 10-20 years that made frac'ing profitable.

As you can see from the illustration, a vertical well goes into (and sometimes through, thereby missing the gas and oil) the shale providing only a small area much like a straw with which to draw up the gas and oil. In that same illustration you see how a horizontal pipe and casing are inserted along a vast length of the shale. The vertical well can be thousands of feet long, and so too the horizontal pipe/casing. However, the horizontal pipe is perforated using explosives in stages or sections at various locations along the horizontal pipe. The illustration shows 16 perforations. So, instead of one vertical pipe drawing on one location, you have 16 or more locations running along thousands of feet where case and oil are extracted. Gravity helps the process.

This process, specifically the ability to drill horizontally, perforate, fracture then prop open the formations around the fractures, has made oil and gas extraction profitable. But, it comes with a very high price and we aren't just talking about at the pump or in the barrel or other oil container.

[Satori]

I struggle to really believe that going to such extreme measures to squeeze dregs from rocks is what they say it is about.

There has to be at least a dual purpose to it [?]

I dig where you are coming from Norman. But in this case I do think it is the money, and the power and control that comes with the vast fortunes they continue to make. Perhaps the power and control, coupled with the money, is the dual purpose.

In fact, at the highest levels it's not about money. They have more than they can shake a stick at and the banksters can create as much as they want at anytime. It's the power and control they want to maintain, and the wealth they acquire by those means, that they want and need most of all.

[Bob]

The simple wells Satori just go into limestones and sands with natural fractures.. Doing the breaking up of the shales, which are very much like the shales that we see on decorative sidewalks for instance, turning those shales into fractured (i.e. the slang 'frac or frack') rubble, or "wash" is the goal and of course keeping the fractures 'propped open' with of all things proppants..

Cuadrilla has to find a place to dispose of the waste frac water.. They have some disposal wells, but I didn't see enough descriptions in UK of such..

In the US disposal wells are highly regulated. When a well is starting to deplete, it will be frac'd again and then possibly water or gas flooded to move the fluids from within the formation to a receiver well.

My other threads point out, disposal wells taking frac water and other forms of waste water (Herve' I believed mentioned some of the radioactive waters are disposed and showing up in drinking water sands for instance), that old wells can act like straws, quite able to allow migration from deep so called "protected and safe" zone upwards into the old wells. In other words, the disposal wells themselves end up frac'ing the old formations, and opening up the dead wells, up to 20 miles away.. Contiguous connected formations in other words..

Nobody in the lay realizes this, and hardly do operators and owners of the wells want to talk about that..

[scanner]

I've been a long standing campaigner against fracking in Lancashire. I've written to many local council officials . We won last years with the help of local councillors . Fracking corporations knew there was strong support from our traitorous Government Camoron and Co . Looks like nothing changed, but, it ain't over till the fat lady sings. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

[Foxie Loxie]

scanner....Let us know when "the fat lady sings"!! :waving:

[scanner]

She'll be singing from the highest hill Foxie :sing: