The Message is Very Clear

Frack Nowhere: US Gas Fracked At The Expense Of Communities

From an Article by  Blue and Green Tomorrow, September 26, 2016

On Tuesday 27th September, ethane from US fracking will arrive in Scotland for the first time. Campaigners from both continents attacked bosses at INEOS for their financial gain from the destructive shale gas extraction in Pennsylvania.

Almost 10,000 gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania, with a devastating effect on local communities and the environment. One of the companies supplying INEOS with ethane from the Marcellus shale, Range Resources, has been fined millions of dollars for environmental violations and is implicated in a gagging order which involves 2 children. [2]

INEOS benefitted from millions of pounds of public money in grant and loan funding to help build a storage tank for the fracked ethane at Grangemouth. The chemicals corporation also want to frack for shale gas in the central belt of Scotland and large parts of Northern England. [3]

Ron Gulla, a former resident of Hickory, Pennsylvania who signed a lease for fracking on his land in 2002 said:

“I have witnessed first hand how the fracking industry has brought permanent damage across the Pennsylvania region, polluted our air, land and water and is destroying our livelihoods. Those living near drilling, infrastructure or waste sites have suffered water contamination, spills, wastewater dumping and gas leaks, as well as multiple health impacts.

My property and life have been destroyed by this industry.

“I don’t know how the harm the fracking industry has caused can ever be corrected or how these injured places will get back their clean water. We must never lose sight of the fact that water is more important than gas.

Karen Feridun, founding member of Pennsylvanians Against Fracking said:

“The 9900 unconventional wells already in the ground in Pennsylvania represent less than a tenth of the number the industry would like to drill. The impacts to the environment, human and animal health, safety, property value, and quality of life have been profound, yet our state government has chosen to put the interests of the industry over those of the people at every turn.

“Every bad idea, from wells placed next to public schools to radioactive drilling waste being used as a road paving material to the construction of ethane crackers, gets its day in the sun. By the time the industry has finished with Pennsylvania, the state will be unrecognisable. Much of what we are losing is irreplaceable, but even that which can be replaced will be the taxpayer’s burden to bear.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Head of Campaigns, Mary Church, said:

“It is completely unacceptable to attempt to prop up INEOS’s petrochemicals plants on the back of human suffering and environmental destruction across the Atlantic. The fact that Scottish public money is tied up in this project is disgraceful.

“Setting aside the devastating local impacts of fracking, the climate consequences of extracting yet more fossil fuels are utterly disastrous. If Jim Ratcliffe was really concerned about the future of the Grangemouth plant and its workers he would be planning for its transition to a low carbon model.

“We urge the Scottish Government to act swiftly to ban fracking and start planning seriously for a fair transition to a low carbon economy across all sectors. Fracking should not happen here in Scotland, or anywhere.”

Billionaire INEOS owner Jim Ratcliffe has made clear the company’s plans to become the biggest frackers in the UK. INEOS owns or has a majority stake in all onshore oil and gas licenses in the central belt of Scotland, covering an area of over 700km2, and has over 4,000km2 of license area across the whole of the UK. It was revealed recently that the company’s plans to apply for 30 fracking planning permissions in England this year have suffered a setback, with revised plans to submit 5 applications. The moratorium in Scotland prevents INEOS from fracking in its central belt licenses. The company has called the Scottish Government’s moratorium ‘absurd’. [4]

Range Resources, one of the companies supplying INEOS with ethane from fracked Marcellus shale gas has a chequered recent history. The company is implicated in gagging orders against children in Pennsylvania (2013); was pursued for a record $8.9 million fine for failing to fix a gas well that polluted groundwater and a stream in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania (2015); was fined $4.15 million for violations at six wastewater impoundments in Washington County, Pennsylvania (2014); has suggested it avoids drilling in rich neighbourhoods (2016); and is alleged to have doctored water test results (2016). [2]

 See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

PA & WV Ethane going West & East

Nova Chemicals updating neighbours on pipeline plan at Sarnia (Canada)

From a Press Release of Nova Chemicals, Sarnia Observer (Canada), January 15, 2015

Nova Chemicals is considering a four-kilometre pipeline project to connect its Corunna petrochemical facility to a secondary feedstock source. The pipeline is one of the proposed projects the company plans to provide updates on during a public information meeting set for January 22, 2015

The proposed Kimball pipeline project would replace a dormant four-inch pipeline with a four-km, 12-inch pipeline in an existing right of way, connecting the Corunna site to Plains Midstream’s Windsor-Sarnia pipeline near Kimball Sideroad and a secondary source of natural gas liquids feedstock originating in the Utica shale area of the U.S.

“This is all part of our continued revitalization of our eastern assets,” said Rob Thompson, Nova’s regional operations leader. Nova recently completed work to connect its Corunna facility by pipeline to natural gas liquids from the Eastern U.S. Marcellus shale region.

Also, Nova just recently converted its Corunna facility to use up to 100% feedstock from natural gas liquids. “Currently, we’re operating this facility 100% natural gas liquid feed” from the Marcellus shale pipeline connection, Thompson said.

The proposed pipeline project “will get us a secondary feed source,” he added. “It’s about reliability of the plant,” Thompson said. “It will give us opportunities, in case there’s issues with supply or pipeline reliability.”

Previously, the Corunna facility’s feedstock had been a combination of natural gas liquids and oil. “By switching to this newer feedstock, we’ve taken out the volatility of being tied to crude oil,” allowing the operation “to be much more stable than we would have been,” Thompson said.

He said construction on the Kimball pipeline replacement project could begin in the summer of 2016.  As well as replacing an existing smaller pipeline, the project would remove a dormant eight-inch pipeline from the right of way.

Last fall, Nova Chemicals said a new long-term agreement with the Kinder Morgan Energy Partners pipeline company would provide access to ethane and ethane-propane mixtures from the Utica shale region, through a 380-kilometre, 75,000 barrel-a-day pipeline to be built from Harrison County, Ohio to Michigan, where it can connect to Ontario.

The Jan. 22 meeting will also provide information on Nova’s other proposed capital projects. “Over the last 10 years, Nova’s invested basically $1 billion in capital in Sarnia-Lambton,” Thompson said. “We’re going to give the community an update on the status of each one of those projects.”

In late 2013, Nova Chemicals said it was considering spending another $300 million expanding ethylene manufacturing capacity by 20% at Corunna, as well as upgrading polyethylene capacity at its Moore site. Engineering work for those projects is underway but construction is still waiting for corporate approval, Thompson said. Nova has already applied for provincial environmental approval for the Corunna expansion, Thompson said.

The company is also still considering building a new polyethylene plant in Ontario, or on the U.S. Gulf coast. “We continue to study that facility to determine the best location, and potential timing for construction,” Thompson said. “It’s more positive today than it was a year ago,” he added.

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Qatar Petroleum and Shell not to pursue Al Karaana petrochemicals project

From an Article in OilVoice, January 14, 2015

Qatar Petroleum and Shell have decided not to proceed with the proposed Al Karaana petrochemicals project, and to stop further work on the project. The decision came after a careful and thorough evaluation of commercial quotations from EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) bidders, which showed high capital costs rendering it commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry.

The Al Karaana project was initiated with a Heads of Agreement (HOA) between QP and Shell in December 2011, and envisioned the construction of a new world-scale petrochemicals complex in the Ras Laffan Industrial City north of Qatar. The complex was to be operated as a stand-alone QP-Shell joint venture (80% QP, 20% Shell).

QP and Shell’s existing partnerships include Pearl GTL — the world’s largest integrated gas-to-liquids plant located at Ras Laffan, which has boosted Qatar’s position as the world’s GTL capital. The partnerships also include Qatargas 4 — an integrated Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) asset — in addition to joint downstream and upstream investments in Singapore and Brazil.

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net