{"id":8319,"date":"2018-11-16T13:27:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T12:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8319"},"modified":"2018-11-23T13:49:14","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T12:49:14","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-gas-extraction-earthquakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8319","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week – gas extraction and earthquakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watched a fascinating and worrying report on channel4 this week on gas extraction and earthquakes, in of all places Holland.\u00a0 The first really major hydrocarbon finds in Western Europe post WWII were made in Holland.\u00a0 I remember studying it in my O-level geography.\u00a0 Unlike the north sea these finds were largely on land.\u00a0 The finds (and these were big fields) stimulated North Sea exploration.\u00a0 The fields were centred on Groningen<\/a> and came on stream in the early sixties.\u00a0 The following graph shows the output over the years (source BP statistical review of world energy).<\/p>\n

\"dutch<\/a>The problem the Dutch have found is one of earthquakes.\u00a0 Its become such a serious problem that the Dutch government are forcing production to cease (albeit gradually).\u00a0 There has clearly been a huge scandal with up to 8 billion euros of damage.\u00a0 Many people are waiting for compensation and have had to move out of their homes but it also includes public buildings.\u00a0 Channel4 showed at least one school closed with the pupils having to use huts.\u00a0 (Its so bad they showed an earthquake drill in a school).<\/p>\n

So what has\u00a0gas extraction and earthquakes to do with us in the UK?\u00a0 Well the government has allowed fracking to go ahead in England.\u00a0 So far amid huge public opposition (increasingly from Tory MP’s in rural areas as well) its going ahead at just one site in Lancashire.\u00a0 It been stopped about 6 time due to earthquakes.\u00a0 These are very minor, but the threshold has been set much lower than in Holland where it was set at 4 on the Richter scale.<\/p>\n

It does seem that oil and gas extraction causes earthquakes on a regular basis.\u00a0 At my children’s school there was a British geological survey map on the wall.\u00a0 This showed the distribution of earthquakes over the UK.\u00a0 What was interesting was the great majority were in the part of the north sea where the oil and gas fields were.\u00a0 All this has been invisible due to the minor tremors being out at sea.\u00a0 In the UK there is tiny amount of onshore oil and gas up until now.\u00a0 The Dutch set their levels where there is said to be no damage to buildings, but clearly there has been a huge issue.\u00a0 Albeit one that I missed when we were on holiday in Holland.<\/p>\n

The geology is different in Holland from the UK being sandstone and its conventional gas.\u00a0 However we are running a huge fracking experiment.\u00a0 There is pressure on the government to liberalise both the planning and earthquake levels (with levels set so low it simply cannot be economic).\u00a0 We cannot know what will happen if fracking really takes off and could be struck with huge problems if we do since clearly earthquakes down the Richter scale clearly cause significant damage.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I watched a fascinating and worrying report on channel4 this week on gas extraction and earthquakes, in of all places Holland.\u00a0 The first really major hydrocarbon finds in Western Europe post WWII were made in Holland.\u00a0 I remember studying it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12,17],"tags":[48,271],"class_list":["post-8319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fracking","category-gas","category-one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week","tag-fracking-2","tag-gas"],"yoast_head":"\nOne thing we have learnt this week - gas extraction and earthquakes - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8319\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8319\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8319\",\"name\":\"One thing we have learnt this week - 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