Tight gas still uses fracking methods

Tight gas still uses fracking methods by Dan Caffrey, May 20, 2013, Gippsland Times
REFERRING to the Lakes Oil story (Gippsland Times 15/5), Robert Annells of Lakes Oil tried to deflect the conversation away from his activities, saying they were nothing to do with coal seam gas. Tight gas is still an unconventional gas and the gas will not flow unless hydraulic fracturing (fracking) processes are applied. … Mr Annells said that this was below the coal seams and shallow aquifers. … Although the fracking takes place very deep down, it is common for the casings of the bore holes to fail and gas and fracking chemicals migrate up the casing which will eventually find their way to the surface. If they pass through an aquifer on the way up, then that gets contaminated as well. Apparently, six per cent of the well casings fail in the first year. The casings on these wells have to last forever. Because of the rock corroding, concrete-eating nature of the fracking fluids, the casings will all fail in a generation or two. This is extremely worrying, as between 30 and 70 per cent of the fracking compounds are left in the well and there is nothing say that they won’t migrate to aquifers, both deep and shallow. [Emphasis added]

Fracking moratorium hurts economy — Lakes Oil by Peter Hill, May 14, 2013, Gippsland Times
GAS and oil explorer Lakes Oil’s chairman Rob Annells is highly critical of the state government’s moratorium on fracture stimulation, or fracking, claiming it is harming both Victoria’s economy and petroleum extraction industry employment. His comments follow a tour of Lakes Oil’s Wombat drill sites near Seaspray by Lake’s Oil community liaison officer Bob Thompson and Wellington Shire Council’s economic development department staff last Thursday. Mr Annells said projects gas prices would rise significantly, probably doubling in the next three to four years, because Australia’s east coast gas market was about to be opened up to world prices when gas exports out of Gladstone, Queensland, began. “Queensland will suck up two thirds of the east coast gas production for export as liquefied natural gas,” he said. … “It is apparent that if Victorian industry cannot get a continuous supply of gas at reasonable prices, jobs in Victoria will be threatened.” He said the application of the Victorian ban on fracking of all gas extraction may have unfortunate consequences for both industrial and household users, as a result of price pressures and the uncertainty of reliable supplies in the long term. “The ban on fracture stimulation, fracking, imposed by the Victorian government was introduced to apply to coal bed methane,” he told the Gippsland Times. “But it has inadvertently caught our tight gas project in the ban,” he said.

Mr Annells said the Wombat gas field was ready to be fracked as soon as the government’s moratorium was lifted. … Industry insiders have speculated Ms Rinehart’s involvement would bring considerable pressure to bear on the state government to justify the inclusion of natural gas formations in the fracking moratorium. Mr Annells stressed Lakes Oil was not involved in coal bed methane. “Lakes Oil does not intend to, and will not frack any rock units that are aquifers.” He explained Lakes Oil’s petroleum exploration permits were regulated by the Victorian Petroleum Act, and not the Mining Act, which covers coal bed methane. However a Lakes Oil subsidiary Commonwealth Mining Pty Ltd, holds the current exploration licences EL53331 in the Stradbroke area, for Coal Bed Methane (otherwise known as CSG). [Emphasis added]

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