Reporting on the unconventional oil and gas industry and its use of hydraulic fracturing
1st March 2014 March sees two major events in the fracking debate. They bring together some of the biggest names in the industry and, potentially, the largest gathering of the anti-fracking community.
28th February 2014 A freedom of information request has confirmed that Cuadrilla carried out no seismic surveys in the Balcombe area and is relying on data from the 1990s, which one geologist has said is inadequate. Last year, Cuadrilla drilled a vertical and a horizontal oil exploration well […]
25th February 2014 Frack Free Balcombe Residents’ Association is one of the latest organisations to highlight the links between Britain’s onshore oil and gas industry and Chinese investment. The association’s weekly newsletter (number 18) traces the links between Balcombe and Beijing. We’ve converted this into a flow chart. […]
23rd February 2014 We asked Cuadrilla questions about its planning application to flow test the oil exploration well at Balcombe and for a response to calls for it to contribute to the cost of policing the summer protests. Here are the unedited responses. Question: What is ‘acid etching’ […]
21st February 2014 The UK’s “number one shale gas conference” has moved from Manchester to Birmingham. Delegates to Shale UK received an email today telling them the original venue, Manchester Central, could no longer accommodate the event because it had another large conference taking place simultaneously. It also […]
21st February 2014 The green movement’s opposition to shale gas on climate change grounds came under attack on Wednesday (February 19th) from both the Government and the hydrocarbon industry. The Chancellor, George Osborne, and Francis Egan, the chief executive of Cuadrilla, both argued that shale gas would help […]
20th February 2014 According to a survey by Bloomberg News, the only company that plans to frack at least one well in the UK this year is IGas Energy Plc. The company has faced protests for the past three months from anti fracking campaigners camped outside its exploratory drilling […]
19/2/14 Development of a UK fracking industry could be threatened by uncertainty about the planning and approvals process, according to the Poyry consulting group. A report published by the company this week warned that investment in shale gas could be deterred because it was unclear whether the UK […]
18/2/14 The South Downs National Park Authority has halted consideration of Celtique Energie’s planning application for exploratory drilling at Fernhurst because key information is missing. The application will need to go through a new consultation and is unlikely to be decided until the summer. The authority’s chief executive, […]
18/2/14 Frack Free Balcombe Residents’ Association has responded to an interview (reported here last week) by Shale World with the village’s parish council chair Alison Stevenson. The full response is posted below from FFBRA’s latest newsletter. Community benefit FFBRA challenged Alison’s Stevenson’s suggestion that Balcombe could receive £80,000 from […]
DRILL OR DROP? 