Say No to fracking

[Oscar]

Say No to fracking

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business ... story.html

Hydraulic fracturing is spreading rapidly - but many believe danger lurks

BY ALAN BROWNE, FREELANCE September 2, 2010

Natural gas had been enjoying fairly high prices for most of the period from 2000 to 2007. The United States, Asia and western Europe's growing demand for natural gas had its effect on prices. Quebec was in the process of establishing a re-gasification plant on the lower north shore of the St. Lawrence and Irving Oil was doing the same in Saint John, N.B. Both were designed to bring Middle East and Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the northeast United States markets.
Meanwhile, in Texas, a relatively minor player in the gas industry was honing a method of extracting the immense natural gas reserves trapped in shale rock. This involves old and new technologies - most importantly horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, chemical stimulation and sand to hold open the fractures in the shale so the gas can escape.
The technique has caught on. Like wildfire. Because of its success, new wells have sprung up all over Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Natural gas prices have fallen. The LNG re-gasification plant for Quebec has been put on indefinite hold. The New Brunswick plant stands somewhat underused. A new plant in Texas, near Houston, has only received a few contracted loads of LNG. Interest in "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) is spreading rapidly worldwide to the consternation of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
It has long been known that northeast North America has large shale formations with methane trapped in their tight pores. In New York state and Pennsylvania it is called the Marcellus Shale. In Quebec there are two formations of interest. One is called Utica and a smaller one, Lorraine. These are large areas extending (very roughly) from inside New York state to Quebec City. Lorraine lies over the Utica formation. Parts of both lie under the St. Lawrence.
A few years ago several companies acquired rights from the Quebec government to drill and test the shale for economically recoverable amounts of gas. To everyone's great happiness the wells turned up very positive results. One partnership, Cambrian/Gastem, is currently drilling to 3,360 metres near St. Hyacinthe.
Currently, Pennsylvania is well along in production. Homeowners, farmers and others are receiving generous offers to extract the gas beneath their feet. Likewise, in the same formation, offers in New York are very generous. People see their poor life savings turning into a retirement with no worries.
New York, however, has had enough of a hue and cry from concerned landowners and environmentalists worried about gas leaks, ground water pollution and the mystery chemicals used in fracking, that the state senate has imposed a moratorium. The consensus is that fracking will be banned until a complete study of the risks is completed. Helping this along is the memory of the summer of BP and upcoming elections in the state.
In Quebec, land owners do not have mineral rights by default. But the gas companies know they need community support in order to drill here. Promises of new hockey arenas and the like are common baubles offered to encourage support. And of course jobs -something more difficult to ignore.
The economics and risk factors point to one course for Quebec: Patience. First of all, the government has no rules, regulations, guidelines or personnel sufficient enough to address the issue. Secondly, the chemicals used in the process are not publically known. The drilling companies will not reveal them to state regulators in the U.S. even under proprietary information agreements. Thirdly, the economics may make sense to the drillers (they will make a profit) but do not make any sense generally (natural gas prices are low and will result in low royalties to the province).
Indeed, the gas will mostly be destined to the U.S. northeast, which is currently saturated in cheap natural gas flowing from the west, new wells in Pennsylvania as well as natural gas from Nova Scotia. Why play to a cheap market? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that natural gas demand will increase by at least 0.5 per cent per year for the next 20 years. We might as well wait for the higher prices and royalties.
Quebec is in an envious position and should grin like the Cheshire cat as it bides its time learning the process in detail, building sensible regulations, awaiting the truth about the secret sauce (in time it will be revealed, one way or another) and, of course, for much higher natural gas which will come in 10 to 20 years as consumption switches away from coal to natural gas.

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Drilling into the shale is low risk from an environmental point of view, but you have to go through the top soil and groundwater layers to get there. The chemicals used as well as the natural gas itself can potentially leak into this vital resource and poison it.
To date, shale gas drillers in Pennsylvania have been slapped with over 1,400 operating violations since early 2008. This is in part blamed on lax enforcement. Quebec would do well to go to Pennsylvania and learn as much as possible.
We can live without gas. We cannot live without water.
Write to Quebec government ministries and tell them that you will not accept lax rules or oversight and especially not allow companies to drill here and inject undeclared chemicals in any amount into our ground. A complete moratorium is required until everything is publicly known about the process.
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