Environmental wellness experts have condemned a move to be made by the two companies exploring for shale gas in the UK. Cuadrilla – with gas operations in Lancashire and plans for new drilling in West Sussex – and iGas –, which has recently disclosed plans to drill in the Bowland Shale in Lancashire – have plans to flare excess gas at their sites.
Flaring excess will be the most visible sign of the fracking revolution that many in business and government would like to bring to the UK. Burning the methane results in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and so flaring excess gas is widely regarded as damaging to the wellbeing of the planet. Fracking wells are now widespread in the US, and flaring is so prevalent that you can see the flames from space.
Methane leaks from gas and oil fracking sites, and so fracking companies prefer to burn it as, during the exploration stage, it is cheaper than capturing it and using it for fuel, and it is less dangerous than allowing it to leak freely. It is understood that the UK companies have disclosed their plans to the Environment Agency, which does not ban flaring, but the British Countryside will suffer – with pipes tens of metres high burning naked flames at the top.
According to Joss Garman, policy director at Greenpeace, ‘As well as the industrialisation of rural England and the impacts on our climate, we now know fracking could mean hundreds of naked flames lighting up the English countryside. The UK is not the US and the consensus is that shale gas will not bring down bills. So for communities in the two-thirds of England earmarked for potential fracking, shale gas could mean a lot of pain for little gain.’
Cuadrilla has asserted that during the production phase, its shale gas wells would be capped, preventing methane from reaching the surface. The company said, ‘It is not possible to capture the gas during the exploration phase of the project. This can only be done during the production phase when pipeline and associated facilities are in place to use the gas.’ Captured gas would be fed into the gas network.
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