Fracking

UK’s Cuadrilla to begin shale gas fracking in NW England next week

October 05, 2018 | Company Operations, Fracking, North Sea & Western Europe, Shale oil & gas

London, UK | — UK shale gas pioneer Cuadrilla Resources is to begin hydraulic fracturing at the first of its two horizontal shale gas wells at its Preston New Road site in Northwest England “in the next week,” the company said Friday. Once the fracking starts, it will represent the first such activity in the UK since 2011. The UK is increasingly dependent on gas imports, with Cuadrilla and its peers saying shale gas can go some way to reducing that dependence. “The start of hydraulic …

South African anti-fracking group threatens legal challenge

July 23, 2014 | Fracking, Shale oil & gas, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa | – A South African anti-fracking group threatened a legal challenge on Tuesday to government plans to grant shale gas exploration licences in the pristine semi-desert of the Karoo, saying the regulatory process had been marked by “patent ineptitude”. In a February State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma described shale gas as a “game changer” for the economy and said Pretoria would allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, “within the framework of our good environmental laws”. The government had been expected …

U.S. is overtaking Russia as largest oil & gas producer

October 03, 2013 | Fracking, Shale oil & gas

The U.S. is overtaking Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, a startling shift that is reshaping markets and eroding the clout of traditional energy-rich nations. U.S. energy output has been surging in recent years, a comeback fuelled by shale-rock formations of oil and natural gas that was unimaginable a decade ago. A Wall Street Journal analysis of global data shows that the U.S. is on track to pass Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas combined this …

South Africa says shale gas fracking needs water licence

September 03, 2013 | Fracking, Government & Regulations

Pretoria (Reuters) – Companies seeking shale gas exploration permits in South Africa will need to apply for a water usage licence, the country’s water and environmental affairs minister said on Tuesday. South Africa last year lifted a moratorium on shale gas exploration in its Karoo region, where the extraction technique known as fracking might tap what is believed to be some of the world’s biggest reserves of the energy source. That decision aroused criticism from environmentalists who say water supplies could be polluted by fracking, …