Imported gas from US will be fracked contrary to what Taoiseach says
People Before Profit have won a debate slot today in the Dáil on the controversial Shannon LNG project which the government intend on putting forward for the EU Projects of Common Interest this Friday.
The debate has been granted following pressure being applied by TDs Bríd Smith and Richard Boyd Barrett in the Dáil chamber this week and intense lobbying by campaigners concerned about the plans.
The debate will be held today (October 3rd) at approx. 1.30pm in the Dáil.
It was revealed earlier this week that the government kept the date of the EU meeting a secret- a meeting at which the government will put the Shannon LNG forward for the list of PCIs.
The move was described by TD Bríd Smith as “disgraceful and disingenuous in the extreme, this move would mean all of the Government’s climate plans are meaningless as it will mean importing fracked gas from the US”.
TDs and NGOs have called on the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to take the project off this Friday’s EU meeting on Projects of Common Interest (PCIs).
Yesterday in the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested that the gas to be imported into the Shannon LNG would not necessarily be fracked gas. But US anti-fracking campigners have evidence to show that it is.
Julia Walsh, founder of Frack Action in the US said: “The fact is this would be fracked gas from Pennsylvania. The corporation who is seeking to build the ‘Shannon LNG’ terminal stated this in their filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2018.”
Notes-
New Fortress Energy specifically stated the gas is from fracking: “Hydraulic Fracturing. Certain of our suppliers employ hydraulic fracturing techniques to stimulate natural gas production from unconventional geological formations (including shale formations), which currently entails the injection of pressurized fracturing fluids (consisting of water, sand and certain chemicals) into a well bore. Moreover, hydraulically fractured natural gas wells account for a significant percentage of the natural gas production in the U.S.; the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in 2016 that hydraulically fractured wells provided two-thirds of U.S. marketed gas production in 2015”. (page 49, US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2018)
New Fortress Energy also stated that they are planning to build two plants in the area where there is fracking that currently cannot be brought to market to build plants to liquefy the gas for transport: “We are an integrated gas to power company that seeks to use “stranded” natural gas to satisfy the world’s large and growing power needs”[…] “We are currently developing two liquefiers in the Marcellus area of Pennsylvania, each of which is expected to have the capacity to produce approximately 3 to 4 million gallons of LNG (which is the equivalent of 250,000 to 350,000 MMBtu) per day, and intend to develop five or more additional liquefiers over the next five years.” (page 9, US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2018)
New Fortress Energy have also stated in this filing that they plan to use this fracked gas for at least 15 years and have already entered into that contract: “We have already entered into a 15-year contract to acquire all of the feed gas needed to operate our first Pennsylvania Facility at capacity”; (page 14, US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2018)
