By Peter Willams, The West Australian newspaper.
The Australian chief of the US energy giant at the forefront of developing shale gas in WA says the industry has failed to defend the practice of “fraccing” against claims about its dangers.
The president of ConocoPhilip’s Australian business, Todd Creeger, said business had been on the back foot over explaining the science behind hydraulic fracturing o extract gas from shale and coal seams in the face of some “sensational” media coverage.
CoconoPhilips last month signed an agreement with New Standard Energy which could create WA’s first shale gas operation in the Canning Basin in the Kimberley.
Proposals by other players to extract gas in the South West’s Whicher Range have attracted opposition from conservationists, farmers and local governments concerned about groundwater contamination.
The NSW Government last month extracted a moratorium on fraccing in the coal seam gas sector until the end of the year.
Fraccing involves drilling into the shale layer and fracturing it with explosives. A mixture of sand, water and chemicals is pumped into the fissures, releasing gas and water through the pipe.
Critics say it has the potential to expose aquifiers to a “cocktail” of chemicals used by the drillers.
“There’s very very little potential to contaminate groundwater,” Mr Creeger told an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia breakfast in Perth yesterday.
He said more than 99 per cent of the materials used in fraccing were sand and water: “The chemicals that we add a swimming pool has more chemicals. We haven’t done a good enough job in getting out and explaining the science.”
Mr Creeger also told the function that the value of CoconoPhilips’ Australian assets were projected to triple over the next decade and predicted its workforce across Australia and East Timor of 500 people would double in just a few years.
He said a second phase of LNG exploration with Karoon Gas in the Browse Basin was set to being in the December quarter, but that the company had not yet decided on what form the Browse Basin development would take.
See also “Environmental Problems Caused by Fracking / Coal Seam Gas Mining“
No related posts.