Arreton made the front of the Isle of Wight County Press
this week.
Isle of Wight County
Press Report By James
Woolven
THE OIL company set to drill
at Arreton has come head to head with campaigners Frack Free Isle of Wight in
the fight over public relations.
UK Oil and Gas (UKOG), which
holds an exploration license for oil and gas on the Isle of Wight, has accused
Frack Free Isle of Wight of scaremongering and making false claims.
Frack Free Isle of Wight issued
an open letter to local landowners, highlighting risks of leasing their land to
oil and gas companies.
Stephen Sanderson, UKOG chief
executive, said: "Frack Free Isle of Wight has made some outrageous and
malicious claims about what we plan to do on the Island. It is totally false
that we are fracking, acid fracking, stimulating with acid and employing other
'aggressive' techniques that will pose a threat to the environment, to the
water supply or the health of residents. Frack Free Isle of Wight should be
ashamed of the damaging scaremongering they have embarked upon. Let us be
absolutely clear: We do not frack, we do not need to frack, and we will not be
applying for permits to frack."
Frack Free Isle of Wight said:
"We asked landowners to think carefully about the long-term effects of
allowing this industry to gain a foothold on the Island. Rural landowners are
custodians of significant chunks of our natural environment, their decisions
and actions can have lasting impacts on everyone's future. "We believe the
protection of our natural environment and long-term water supplies should be
more important than short term profit. We also feel that it is important for
all possible future scenarios to be considered before decisions are made."
In its letter, Frack Free Isle of
Wight indicated UKOG may have downplayed the potential for future use of
controversial extraction techniques. It pointed out that there was a difference
between conventional oil and tight oil. It also told landowners that NFU
insurance no longer covered environmental damage caused by oil works and that
senior government officials had said that if oil companies go bankrupt, the
liability for clean-up operations could revert to the landowner.
The letter also warned landowners
there would be 'massive' local opposition on environmental grounds to the
establishment of new sites for fossil fuel extraction on the Isle of Wight.
UKOG's Mr Sanderson said:
"Our operations are rigorously regulated by the Environment Agency, Health
and Safety Executive, the UK Government’s Oil and Gas Authority and, of course,
the Isle of Wight Council as the mineral planning authority. We adhere fully to
the strictest regulations and we have an exemplary record of employing both
high operational standards and high levels of openness in our dealings with
residents and stakeholders. We are solely pursuing conventional oil reservoirs,
which like our Horse Hill oil field near Gatwick Airport; we aim to flow
naturally without the so called 'stimulation' techniques erroneously referred
to by Frack Free Isle of Wight. Crucially, our targets are not 'tight'
reservoirs as Frack Free Isle of Wight claims, as is evident by the
record-breaking natural flows at Horse Hill. Our sites are zero discharge,
employing the use of impermeable membranes, which means all produced or stored
fluids, even rainwater, are taken from site by road tanker. No fluids can enter
the ground underlying the site."
UKOG has also said that it will
not use any form of matrix acidulation, due to its potentially adverse effects
on the flow of oil. The company has promised that if it receives planning
permission, it will establish a community liaison group to have a dialogue with
residents.
Mr Sanderson said: "We will
also ensure that residents will benefit from our success — we propose to share
six percent of gross revenues (i.e. before our costs and taxes) with the Isle
of Wight, comprised of business rates taxes and a royalty to the local
community. And in the event of a poor result from our operations, UKOG would
then swiftly restore the site to its original agricultural condition. This is a
normal part of our business."
UKOG has said that if it is given
permission to explore for oil and gas, there will be site construction activity
for the first six to eight weeks. Drilling will last around 60 days, during
which, there will be a period of five to seven days at the beginning and end
where up to ten lorries per day will be needed to bring in and take out the
rig. During the rest of the drilling operation, there will be one or two
lorries a day. After the rig has gone, rig-less flow testing of the well would
commence for up to a few months to assess the well’s commercial viability. Any
produced oil would initially be exported via road tankers, up to five per day.
A spokesperson for Frack Free
Isle of Wight said: "If ever there was a time to think globally but to act
locally, it is now."With the Isle of Wight bidding to be designated as a
UNESCO biosphere and the council pledging to implement environmental action
plans for a sustainable future, it should be unthinkable that new drilling
operations on the Island would be approved. However, this is no time for complacency;
UKOG's response to our letter indicates that they are very serious in their
intentions to commence operations on the Isle of Wight. Frack Free Isle of
Wight is calling on all Islanders to get involved with this issue, to
understand the impacts and to actively engage with the planning process when
applications to establish drilling operations are submitted. Now is the time
for all who care about the future state of our local and global environments to
stand firm in the face of operations that place profit before the planet."
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