In a continued effort to keep residents informed of its works in the region, Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited is distributing its latest newsletter throughout the parishes of Walkington, Bishop Burton, Aldbrough, Burton Constable, Ellerby and Withernwick this week.
The Environment Agency, an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whose role is to create better places for people and wildlife as well as supporting sustainable development, has recently granted Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited new permits enabling the company to continue its work at Crawberry Hill and West Newton.
Rathlin has reaffirmed its position that it has never had any intention of hydraulically fracturing (commonly known as fracking) these exploratory wells – it is not, and will not hydraulically fracture these wells.
These wells were not designed for shale gas production or hydraulic fracturing. The permits we have in place to carry out our works are from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the Environment Agency. They have not granted Rathlin permission to hydraulically fracture and it will not be doing so.
The two sites operated by Rathlin Energy in the East Riding have recently become the subject of some media interest.
Rathlin has been consulting on both sites for more than two years and carrying out our exploration work at the sites for well over a year.
The reason for the additional media interest recently is because a small group of activists have set up camps in a protest against ‘fracking’. The activists camping near the sites are believed to be mainly from other parts of the country and have been joined by a few local campaigners.
The approval of Rathlin’s Environment Agency permits has allowed the anti-fracking campaigners to use the two sites as a media platform to get their views against the use of hydraulic fracturing into the public domain.
Although their views are not relevant to the operations proposed by Rathlin, the company does recognise their right to demonstrate peacefully and acknowledge their desire to do so, so long as this does not breach the rights of local residents or companies, including Rathlin, from going about their daily activities and lawful business.
Environment Agency permitting process is that Rathlin must drill some additional water monitoring boreholes.
Whilst Rathlin has been proactively monitoring water and air quality as well as noise, these additional measures will mean that its own dedicated boreholes can be used in place of those around the sites over which Rathlin and the Environment Agency has less control from an access, security and monitoring perspective.
Rathlin will then move to the ongoing testing phase as per the original plan which will involve a small, water-style rig mobilising to the site to carry on with its work.
This will include a separator system, a flare stack and some Portakabin accommodation for its staff. Of all of the work Rathlin have undertaken so far, this activity will be on a far lesser scale and the vehicle movements to and from the site will be far fewer.
If these tests prove successful, any future work will be the subject of new planning, health, safety and environmental applications as well as detailed public consultation.
Rathlin is currently planning the timescales for its next phases of work. Having held four detailed public consultation meetings at the outset, it has now held 25 community liaison meetings with residents’ chosen community representatives.
The firm will continue to update them on the specific details of its plans so that they in turn can advise residents through parish council meetings, parish newsletters and parish websites. For Rathlin’s part, it will continue to publish information on its website as well as updating the media along the way.
In April, Rathlin met with some of the local media as well as local representatives from Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace to update them on what it is and what it is not doing.
What Rathlin is doing in a bit more detail
Rathlin’s objective has always been to target the conventional reservoirs at its two well sites. Here is a bit more detail about what it plans to do:
• Kirkham Abbey formation flow test:
– To establish whether gas is present in the reservoir
– To establish whether there is a commercially significant rate and volume of gas present
• Namurian formation flow test:
– To establish whether gas is present in the reservoir
– To establish whether there is a commercially significant rate and volume of gas present
• Bowland shale formation mini fall-off test:
– To collect reservoir engineering data
– To help estimate the hydrocarbon reserve potential in the basin
Rathlin’s test programme includes:
Flow test – allows the fluids within the conventional reservoirs to flow to surface. At surface, the fluids are separated into water, oil and gas. The gas will be discharged at the flare stack and the oil and water transported away to be disposed. The flow tests will be carried out for up to 14 days. We are conducting two flow tests at each site.
Mini fall-off test – a short duration formation test designed to gather reservoir engineering data (characteristics and properties of the formation). A small quantity of salt water (5-10 m3) is pressured up until the formation allows the water to be injected.
The well is then shut in and monitored to see how long it takes the pressure to fall-off and the water to seep into the formation. No fluid flows back to surface during a mini fall-off test. We are conducting one mini fall-off test at each site.
Rathlin’s test programme DOES NOT include:
Hydraulic fracturing – is the injection of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into horizontally drilled boreholes.
The pressurised mixture causes the shale to crack. These fissures are held open by the sand particles so that methane from the shale can flow up the borehole.
A spokesperson for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said:
“Rathlin gained planning consent for the Crawberry Hill site for exploration and testing only. They did not obtain planning consent for the production of any minerals.”
“The council understands that the test has been discussed with both the Health & Safety Executive well inspector and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and both of them have advised that they do not consider the testing to be a hydraulic fracturing activity. As such, it is not considered that there has been, or will be, a breach of the above planning consent.”
“The council is aware that members of the group are conducting a peaceful demonstration on the side of the highway and will continue to monitor the situation closely but has no plans to move them along at this time.”
