Total Misleads Danish Authorities by Promising Full Fracking Control by Eric Cabanis, May 15, 2015, sputniknews
French energy giant Total misleads Danish authorities by promises to fully control the process of fracking at the shale gas exploration site in northern Jutland, mainland Denmark, non-governmental organization Frack Off told Sputnik on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) lifted a week-long ban on Total’s fracking in the country, imposed over the usage of “Null Foam,” a hazardous chemical product not approved by local authorities.
According to DEA, Total said it would ensure that no future error occurred by introducing a number of new procedures to control the handling of chemicals, and provided the agency with a comprehensive report on the circumstances surrounding the violation of environmental restrictions.
“One of the most prolific myths touted by the industry, PR companies and politicians is that only certain chemicals or a limited number of chemicals will be used,” Hannah Walters, a Frack Off campaigner, told Sputnik.
“The reality with this case, as with all others, is that these people are not chemists — what they are referring to are ‘products’ not chemicals,” she added.
According to Walters, each of these products contains a mixture of chemicals unknown to the end-user. [Emphasis added]
[Refer also to:
2006 Regulator: “Information provided by industry to date shows that there may not always be a complete understanding of fracture propagation at shallow depths and that programs are not always subject to rigorous engineering design.”
2008 Industry: “We Can Safely Say That We Know Everything There Is To Know About Hydraulically Created Fractures EXCEPT How Deeply They Penetrate; Their Vertical Extents; Their Symmetries About the Wellbore; Whether They Are Planar or Multi-stranded; Their Geometries At The Perimeter; Which Directions They Go; What Their Conductivities Are”
2010 Regulator: “Fracture propagation via large scale hydraulic fracturing operations has proven difficult to predict. Existing planes of weakness in target formations may result in fracture lengths that exceed initial design expectations.”
2010 Industry: “I don’t think that the actual optimum technology set for producing shale gas has yet been defined — at the moment, we are doing it by brute force and ignorance.” Andrew Gould – CEO Schlumberger
2011 Industry: ”You can never have control” admits fracking firm Cuadrilla