Speaker Peter Rose - Business development Manager

At this meeting Peter Rose, Business Development Manager, did a presentation about the Shale Gas development plans of INEOS, which highlighted several issues. 

There is a requirement for more UK gas because 85 % of the country`s heating is gas fired, whereas output from the North Sea has fallen.  Gas is also the essential heating source and feedstock for the Grangemouth chemical cracking plant which uses more gas per annum than the combined consumption of Edinburgh and Glasgow cities.  Whereas in the USA, the recent   shale gas extraction has reduced   factory costs and improved their profit   margins, for Europe the gas costs are three times higher. The Grangemouth plant needs to remain competitive in world markets to survive and has therefore made arrangements for shale gas from the USA to be delivered to Grangemouth from 2016. This is seen as a medium term solution only however, and INEOS feels that locally produced gas will be required to replace this in the future.

Although the Midland Valley of Scotland is felt to offer good geology and therefore good prospects for shale gas production, seismic surveys and test drilling will be required to verify this and determine its viability. Naturally, there would be some disturbance due to lorries and heavy equipment during that process, however this would last for only a few weeks. Contrary to how this is sometime portrayed, there is a considerable physical separation between the deep shale layers (at perhaps 2-3km deep) and the drinking water supply in the aquifers which lies only a few meters below the ground. It is therefore almost impossible for the fracking operation itself to damage the water table. In addition, the drill is encased in several concentric metal and concrete sleeves when passing down through the water table giving considerable protection.  The “fracking” process injects water and chemicals at pressure at this great depth, breaking the shale rock and releasing the gas. There then is a recovery process for the waste water, which is treated to remove any impurities.
Remediation of the land occurs after a few weeks with or without a gas outflow pipe in place, and photographs show minimal changes to the landscape where exploration has occurred. INEOS has proposed a scheme for revenue sharing with land owners and the local community.

This was an extremely professional, topical and thought provoking talk.