Fracking and the company that's exploring the depths of Fermanagh

They might have struck oil off the coast of County Cork, but one global resources company is going full steam ahead in a bid to extract up to 50 years worth of natural gas from Co Fermanagh.

Earlier this year it was announced that Tamboran Resources had identified a huge shale gas field near the border with Co Leitrim last year. The Australian company is eyeing a £6bn investment which it says could create 600 full-time direct jobs and more than 2,400 indirect posts.

Tamboran claims that the projected production of up to 2.2trn cubic feet of shale gas would remove Northern Ireland's dependency on imported gas and the excess gas supply at peak production would enable Northern Ireland to become a significant net exporter of natural gas to other countries.

The company also said that a community investment fund for Co Fermanagh would lead to additional benefits in excess of £2m per year if the proposed fracking project starts production in 2015.

Dr Tony Bazley, a director of Tamboran locally, said that none of the structures used to drill or extract the gas will be above three metres off the ground and that the visual impact would be minimal. He has also pledged that no chemicals will be used in the process.

"If and when the complex is completed it should look like a large farm with a shed, hopefully a traditional Fermanagh barn and a car park, it should have no impact on farming or tourism, and indeed I would hope that both farming and tourism will benefit from shale gas extraction," he said.

"US President Barack Obama said fracking could be a 'game changer' for the US economy and we hope to see similar benefits in Northern Ireland."

A number of studies as to the pros and cons of fracking are already in circulation. Recently the University of Texas Energy Institute found many problems attributed to hydraulic fracturing are common to all oil and gas drilling systems.

A study said that many reports of contamination could be traced to above-ground spills or mishandling of wastewater rather than the fracking technique itself. The Texas team said that gas found in water wells within some shale drilling areas could be traced to natural sources, and was probably present before fracking operations began.

Surface spills of fracturing fluids posed greater risks to groundwater sources than the actual process of fracking, said the researchers.

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How Fracking in the Northeast Could Impact Farmland in Oklahoma

The federal government issues mortgages and loan guarantees to low-income Americans living in rural areas.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering requiring environmental studies before issuing money to those leasing their land for oil and natural gas production.

Why is this happening? U.S. Rep. Dan Boren says it’s because the USDA is bowing to political pressure exerted by opponents of hydraulic fracturing — particularly those in the Northeast, reports the Tulsa World.

 The USDA’s Rural Housing Service generally doesn’t require a down payment, and has been especially popular in the wake of tight credit markets, writes New York Timesreporter Ian Urbina:

… the program’s loans have roughly quadrupled since 2004.

Much of the money has gone to states like Pennsylvania, Texas and Louisiana, which are booming with oil and natural gas drilling.

The National Environmental Review Policy Act — NEPA — requires environmental reviews before federal money is spent, but home and rural business loans are generally excluded.

The rural housing decision might also impact the department’s Rural Business and Cooperative Program, which issues grants and loans to rural businesses.

Hydraulic fracturing is an increasingly common drilling technique, and it’s has had a big economic impact in Oklahoma and a lot of states. But there are environmental concerns about water contamination, spills and air pollution.

Over the last year, some banks and federal agencies have started revisiting their lending policies to account for the potential impact of drilling on property values, reports the Times.

One Agriculture Department office in New York said they were no longer financing homes with gas leases because, in part, of the expensive environmental studies.

It’s not clear if this is happening yet in Oklahoma, reports the World, but Boren isn’t waiting for confirmation.

“… taking away this loan option would only discourage economic development in rural communities like the many located in my eastern Oklahoma district,” Boren wrote Monday in a letter he sent to Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack.

“Not only would an environmental review harm the individuals that need the loans the most, it would also be detrimental to our nation’s progress towards energy independence,” Boren wrote. “If we make potential home owners choose between getting a home loan to keep their house or maintaining a mineral lease, viable sources of oil and gas may become less accessible.”

http://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2012/03/20/how-fracking-in-the-northeast-could-impact-farmland-in-oklahoma/

Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians

The law, known as Act 13 of 2012, an amendment to Title 58 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, requires that companies provide to a state-maintained registry the names of chemicals and gases used in fracking. Physicians and others who work with citizen health issues may request specific information, but the company doesn’t have to provide that information if it claims it is a trade secret or proprietary information, nor does it have to reveal how the chemicals and gases used in fracking interact with natural compounds. If a company does release information about what is used, health care professionals are bound by a non-disclosure agreement that not only forbids them from warning the community of water and air pollution that may be caused by fracking, but which also forbids them from telling their own patients what the physician believes may have led to their health problems. A strict interpretation of the law would also forbid general practitioners and family practice physicians who sign the non-disclosure agreement and learn the contents of the “trade secrets” from notifying a specialist about the chemicals or compounds, thus delaying medical treatment.

The clauses are buried on pages 98 and 99 of the 174-page bill, which was initiated and passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law in February by Republican Gov.Tom Corbett.

“I have never seen anything like this in my 37 years of practice,” says Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician from Coraopolis, Pa. She says it’s common for physicians, epidemiologists, and others in the health care field to discuss and consult with each other about the possible problems that can affect various populations. Her first priority, she says, “is to diagnose and treat, and to be proactive in preventing harm to others.” The new law, she says, not only “hinders preventative measures for our patients, it slows the treatment process by gagging free discussion.”

Psychologists are also concerned about the effects of fracking and the law’s gag order. “We won’t know the extent of patients becoming anxious or depressed because of a lack of information about the fracking process and the chemicals used,” says Kathryn Vennie of Hawley, Pa., a clinical psychologist for 30 years. She says she is already seeing patients “who are seeking support because of the disruption to their environment.” Anxiety in the absence of information, she says, “can produce both mental and physical problems.”

The law is not only “unprecedented,” but will “complicate the ability of health department to collect information that would reveal trends that could help us to protect the public health,” says Dr. Jerome Paulson, director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Dr. Paulson, also professor of pediatrics atGeorge Washington University, calls the law “detrimental to the delivery of personal health care and contradictory to the ethical principles of medicine and public health.” Physicians, he says, “have a moral and ethical responsibility to protect the health of the public, and this law precludes us from doing all we can to protect the public.” He has called for a moratorium on all drilling until the health effects can be analyzed.

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Study shows air emissions near fracking sites may impact health

AURORA, Colo. -- In a new study, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health have shown that air pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing or fracking may contribute to acute and chronic health problems for those living near natural gas drilling sites.

"Our data show that it is important to include air pollution in the national dialogue on natural gas development that has focused largely on water exposures to hydraulic fracturing," said Lisa McKenzie, Ph.D., MPH, lead author of the study and research associate at the Colorado School of Public Health.

The study will be published in an upcoming edition of Science of the Total Environment.

The report, based on three years of monitoring, found a number of potentially toxic petroleum hydrocarbons in the air near the wells including benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene. Benzene has been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a known carcinogen. Other chemicals included heptane, octane and diethylbenzene but information on their toxicity is limited.

"Our results show that the non-cancer health impacts from air emissions due to natural gas development is greater for residents living closer to wells," the report said. "The greatest health impact corresponds to the relatively short-term, but high emission, well completion period."

That's due to exposure to trimethylbenzenes, aliaphatic hydrocarbons, and xylenes, all of which have neurological and/or respiratory effects, the study said. Those effects could include eye irritation, headaches, sore throat and difficulty breathing.

"We also calculated higher cancer risks for residents living nearer to the wells as compared to those residing further [away]," the report said. "Benzene is the major contributor to lifetime excess cancer risk from both scenarios."

The report, which looked at those living about a half-mile from the wells, comes in response to the rapid expansion of natural gas development in rural Garfield County, in western Colorado.

Typically, wells are developed in stages that include drilling followed by hydraulic fracturing , the high powered injection of water and chemicals into the drilled area to release the gas. After that, there is flowback or the return of fracking and geologic fluids, hydrocarbons and natural gas to the surface. The gas is then collected and sold.

Garfield County asked the Colorado School of Public Health to assess the potential health impacts of these wells on the community of Battlement Mesa with a population of about 5,000.

McKenzie analyzed ambient air sample data collected from monitoring stations by the Garfield County Department of Public Health and Olsson Associates Inc. She used standard EPA methodology to estimate non-cancer health impacts and excess lifetime cancer risks for hydrocarbon exposure.

McKenzie noted that EPA standards are designed to be public health proactive and may overestimate risks.

"However, there wasn't data available on all the chemicals emitted during the well development process," she said. "If there had been, then it is entirely possible the risks would have been underestimated."

The report concludes that health risks are greater for people living closest to wells and urges a reduction in those air emissions.

McKenzie said future studies are warranted and should include collection of area, residential and personal exposure data where wells are operating. Additional studies, she said, should also examine the toxicity of other hydrocarbons associated with natural gas development.

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The study is entitled "Human Health Risk Assessment of Air Emissions from Development of Unconventional Natural Gas Resources." It was accepted for publication in March by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uocd-ssa031612.php

Fracking Wells’ Air Emissions Pose Health Risks, Study Finds

Chemicals released into the air when natural gas is produced by hydraulic fracturing may pose a health risk to those living nearby, the Colorado School of Public Health said.

Researchers found potentially toxic airborne chemicals near wells in Garfield County, Colorado, during three years of monitoring, the school said today in a statement. Drilling has expanded in the county, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west of Denver.

Emissions from the wells include methane and volatile organic compounds that react with heat and sunlight to form ozone, according to Elena Craft, a health scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund who is studying air quality near gas wells in Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that would reduce oil and gas well emissions.

“If you’re leaking natural gas, then you’re leaking a number of pollutants including methane and volatile organic chemicals,” Craft said in an interview. “Health implications? That’s the million dollar question.”

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Oil, gas taxes vary widely by state

As the debate unfolds, both sides will use examples from other states. Researchers warn that there are big challenges to comparing the vastly different approaches, and many reasons to proceed with caution in deciding how to structure a tax.

“It’s a bag of snakes more than a can of worms,” said David Passmore, director of the Institute for Research in Training & Development at Penn State University.

Most of the debate is about “severance” taxes, a tax on natural resources that are being “severed” from the earth. Nearly all the money collected comes from oil and natural-gas production.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/03/19/oil-gas-taxes-vary-widely-by-state.html

Shale gas lawyers in big demand in Ohio

Firms that already had oil and gas practices are now expanding them. Industry veterans from Texas and Oklahoma are partnering with Ohio lawyers to grab business. Small firms and solo practitioners like Piergallini are representing landowners, while big firms are courting the gas companies. And in Cleveland, law schools are scheduling courses that deal with shale exploration.

Leasing and title quandaries are just the opening volley in what will be years of legal work -- and probably thousands of lawsuits -- tied to exploration, drilling, production and pipeline construction.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't tens of thousands of disputes already," said Roger Proper Jr. at Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston in Wooster, adding that many may not have reached the courtroom.

For Piergallini, shale work now consumes 100 percent of his law practice in Tiltonsville, a short drive south of Steubenville along the Ohio River.

In two 12-hour shifts last August, Piergallini, 56, helped 550 families in Harrison and Jefferson counties execute leases with oil and gas companies covering 32,000 acres.

"My practice was real estate and probate, and coal was a big part of that," said the grandson of Italian immigrants who moved to southeast Ohio in the 1920s to work in bituminous coal mining. "It only made sense that it would transition into oil and gas."

The rush by energy companies to get at eastern Ohio's resources has Lee Plakas working long weeks, too.

The managing partner of Tzangas, Plakas, Mannos & Raies in Canton helps property owners form associations that combine their land into bigger chunks that are more attractive to developers.

"In numbers there is strength, and because of the dramatically different technology of the horizontal drilling, all of the procedures and customs have been thrown out the window," Plakas said.

Harvesting oil and gas from shale uses techniques for drilling horizontal wells and then fracturing, or "fracking," the rock. Wells go down about 8,000 feet before they branch into horizontal sections that can extend a mile or more from the vertical shaft. A mixture of water, sand and chemicals is pumped under pressure into the horizontal borings.

Plakas said it's a world different from the time when farmers would lease land for $10 or $15 an acre, with operators setting up see-saw natural gas "grasshoppers" that almost blended into the landscape like rusty farm equipment. Today's horizontal drilling rigs tower up to 90 feet, surrounded by rock and gravel well pads stretching 5 to 15 acres.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/shale_play_lawyers_in_big_dema.html