Rob Edwards

The boss who backed contentious coal gas plan resigns

from Sunday Herald, 07 July 2013

Mark Lappin, the European boss of Dart Energy and the public face of the company’s controversial plan to exploit underground gas in Scotland, has resigned.

He left on Friday to take up a better-paid job with the gas firm, Centrica, in Aberdeen, where he lives. His departure follows the stalling of Dart’s planning applications to sink 22 wells at 14 sites to extract coalbed methane at Airth near Falkirk.

After prolonged delays by Falkirk and Stirling councils and over 1,500 objections, Dart appealed to the Scottish government for a decision last month. But now both councils have urged ministers to hold a public inquiry.

Lappin joined Dart Energy in April 2012 as Europe General Manager responsible for progressing the company’s flagship development at Airth. Before that he worked for 16 years with the US oil giant, ExxonMobile, in Aberdeen, Texas and Germany.

Revealed: the dirty coal wars being waged in Canonbie

from Sunday Herald, 30 June 2013

Scotland’s largest private landowner, Richard the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, has become embroiled in a fierce battle with an Australian company over who should profit from exploiting potentially huge underground coal reserves.

An eleventh-hour intervention by the Duke’s staff forced Dumfries and Galloway Council to withdraw a bid by Melbourne-based New Age Exploration (NAE) to do exploratory drilling for coal at Canonbie, near the English border. Buccleuch Estate has its own, conflicting plans for extracting gas from the same coalbed.

The estate has been accused by a local councillor of “bullying” NAE to protect its commercial interests. But the estate insists the allegation is unfounded, and that it was just exercising its legitimate rights.

The Canonbie coal wars are erupting as the coal industry elsewhere in Scotland is collapsing. Two companies have gone bust, leaving as many as 15 opencast mines across the country without enough money to clean them up. 

Environmental groups, local communities and leading politicians have called for a ban on new coal developments until the crisis is resolved. “Dumfries and Galloway seems to be in a world of its own where companies are competing to rip yet more fossil fuels out of the ground,” said Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Scottish fracking licences to be dropped

from Sunday Herald, 30 June 2013

The only licences to frack for gas in Scotland are going to be dropped, according to the company that holds them.

Australian-owned Dart Energy is in discussions with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) over ending its fracking permits for two sites near Canonbie in Dumfries and Galloway.

That would mean that, in contrast to England, no hydraulic fracturing to extract underground shale gas would be allowed in Scotland. Huge shale reserves were announced across northern England last week, with strong backing from the Westminster government.

But abandoning fracking in Scotland could help pave the way politically for Dart’s controversial plans to exploit coalbed methane using other techniques at Airth, near Falkirk, and at Canonbie, where the company is working with the Duke of Buccleuch’s estate.

Dart said that it had shown that commercially viable levels of coalbed methane could be extracted in Scotland without recourse to fracking technology. The company has been assessing the fracking licences it acquired from another company at Canonbie in 2012.

“We are working with Sepa to alter our permits such that we do not need nor have licences to use fracking for coalbed methane,” a Dart spokesman told the Sunday Herald.

Plans for gas development delayed as talks break down

from The Herald, 20 May 2013

Negotiations on the handling of highly controversial plans to exploit underground gas in central Scotland have broken down, paving the way for an appeal to the Scottish government.

The Australian company, Dart Energy, has been forced to postpone the start of commercial mining for coal bed methane around Airth this year because Falkirk and Stirling councils have repeatedly delayed their deadlines for taking a decision.

Until now, the delays have been agreed between the councils and the company. But in the last few weeks they have failed to reach an agreement on a new deadline, enabling Dart to appeal directly to Scottish ministers for a decision.

As many as 1,500 objections have now been lodged with the two councils against Dart’s plans. The company has applied for planning permission to sink 22 wells at 14 sites to extract up to 60 billion cubic feet of gas.

There are fears that gas could leak, water could be contaminated and public health put at risk. But the company insists that the process will be safe, and claims it has no plans to use the hotly disputed technology of fracking to get at the gas.

Probe into leaking gas claims

from Sunday Herald, 14 April 2013

An allegation that explosive and highly polluting gas is leaking from boreholes in southwest Scotland is being probed by the Scottish government’s green watchdog.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) is launching an investigation into claims that methane is “bubbling up” in wells drilled to test for the gas in coal seams near Canonbie in Dumfries and Galloway. The claims are denied by the company that owns the wells.

The Sunday Herald received information claiming gas was escaping in the wells.

The information was passed to Sepa, which promised to investigate. “Sepa has recently become aware of information regarding the potential release of gas from coal bed methane wells in the Canonbie area,” said a Sepa spokesman. “Sepa will shortly be carrying out investigations into this."

Sepa stressed that it was important for members of the public to report suspected pollution incidents to its telephone hotline (0800 80 70 60). “Once the investigation is completed, we will consider whether any follow-up work may be necessary in line with our enforcement policy,” said Sepa’s spokesman.

“If methane were escaping from a well, Sepa would advise that it is reported to the regulators involved in the control of these operations. This would include Sepa, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the local planning authority, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Coal Authority.”

Revealed: the problem that could hamper underground gas development

from Sunday Herald, 07 April 2013

Controversial plans to exploit underground gas in central Scotland could be stymied by problems with the quality of the gas, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The troubled Australian company, Dart Energy, has applied for planning permission to mine up to 60 billion cubic feet of coal bed methane at Airth near Falkirk. It has signed a £300 million deal with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) for the supply of gas over the next seven years, and has said it hopes to start delivery before the end of this year.

But the Sunday Herald has seen evidence that the calorific value of the gas, which is crucial in determining its price for consumers, is unlikely to be high enough for the national grid. Dart has been warned about the problem by independent consultants.

The company has been told that the gas may need to be blended with higher-quality gas on the grid, which, if permitted, would have cost implications. Or the gas could be enriched by adding propane, a high-risk process that is not included in the company’s current planning applications.

According to experts, enrichment would mean importing nearly a hundred tonnes of propane every day, in three large tanker deliveries. It would also require part of the site to be regulated by the UK government’s Health and Safety Executive as a “major accident hazard”.

Company accused of hiding gas fracking plans

from Sunday Herald, 31 March 2013 

An Australian energy company has been accused of hiding plans to use the controversial technique of fracking to exploit shale gas under central Scotland.

Dart Energy insists that it has “no plans” to mine shale gas in Scotland. But in a submission to the Australian stock exchange it has highlighted two major shale fields near Falkirk containing more than two trillion cubic feet of gas as “prospective” developments.

The company also has an agreement with the BG gas group for the rights to one of the shale fields, and has been promoting its Scottish shale gas assets to potential investors.

Shale gas is trapped in rock formations deep underground. It is freed by pumping in liquids under high pressure to deliberately fracture the rock, a process known as fracking.

But fracking has been blamed for causing earthquakes, and for contaminating water supplies with toxic chemicals. It can also boost the pollution that is disrupting the climate.

The dangers of Scotland’s dash for underground gas

from Sunday Herald, 09 December 2012

A quarter of Scotland is up for grabs as part of Chancellor George Osborne’s new dash for underground gas, bringing dangers from ‘gender-bender’ contamination, radioactive wastes, climate pollution and explosions. 

Over 20,000 square kilometres covering the entire central belt and a part of the southwest have been earmarked by the UK government for exploitation by controversial technologies like fracking to extract gas from wells dug deep into the ground.

Plans are most advanced in Scotland, where proposals to drill 22 wells to tap the methane gas in coal seams near Falkirk and Stirling are now facing hundreds of objections from local communities. Opposition has also come from the leading house-builders, Cala and Persimmon, and from Network Rail, which is concerned about the railway line to Perth and Dundee being damaged by a gas blast.

In his autumn budget statement last week, Osborne announced the creation of a new government office to promote “unconventional gas” and promised tax breaks for companies mining underground shale gas. Referring to the gas boom in the US, he said: “We don’t want British families and businesses to be left behind as gas prices tumble on the other side of the Atlantic.”

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) also published a detailed strategy to boost gas production. And in the next few days the UK energy secretary, Ed Davey, is expected to lift the suspension on fracking - the fracturing of rock to force out gas - which was halted while earthquake risks were investigated.

At the same time, to help compensate for the decline in gas from under the North Sea, DECC is planning to open up new areas of the UK mainland to gas exploration and development. This will make huge swathes of central and southern Scotland available for companies to bid for licences to drill, as well as large parts of England and Wales (map available to download below).

Fear that fracking could start on the sly

from Sunday Herald, 09 December 2012

The controversial process of “fracking” for underground gas could start in Scotland by stealth without communities being consulted, ministers are being warned.

Labour’s environment spokeswoman, Claire Baker MSP, says confusion over the planning rules could allow a “fracking free-for-all” with the technology being introduced “under the radar”.

Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping fluids at high pressures into rock formations deep underground to release trapped gas. The UK government is expected to give the go-ahead to fracking in the next few days, despite evidence that it triggers small earthquakes. 

In Scotland two fracking licences have been granted for areas near Canonbie in Dumfries and Galloway, but they have so far not been used. There are also advanced plans for the related extraction of coalbed methane in Falkirk and Striling, though fracking is not currently proposed.

Critics fear, however, that fracking could commence in the future without requiring fresh planning permission from local councils. “This raises serious questions about democratic accountability and transparency,” Baker told the Sunday Herald.

Boom in gas exploitation on land running into opposition

from Sunday Herald, 11 March 2012

A boom in exploiting underground gas in Scotland is running into mounting opposition from communities and environmentalists worried about the contamination of water supplies and climate pollution.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald has discovered that there are ten sites across the central belt and in the south west being explored and developed for methane, with the prospect of many more to come. The idea is to extract the flammable gas from deep coal beds by drilling, draining and pumping, perhaps using the highly controversial technique known as fracking.

But critics warn that, whether or not fracking is used, the risks that groundwater will be polluted and public health put at risk are “unacceptable high”. They also fear that exploiting the gas will make it impossible for Scotland to meet its targets to cut the carbon emissions that are disrupting the climate.

Coal bed methane is regarded by some in the energy industry as a potentially huge resource that could help replace dwindling supplies from the North Sea. A major Australian company, Dart Energy, is now behind most of the plans in Scotland. 

It took over the Scottish firm, Composite Energy, a year ago, acquiring a series of exploratory drilling sites in Falkirk, Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Fife (see table below). In recent weeks, it has also taken over licences acquired by another company, Greenpark Energy, in the Canonbie area of Dumfries and Galloway.