I think you’ll find he won’t post any such list, the list is very very long and includes MANY very toxic chemicals

All in all it seems an excellent idea to pump the hundreds of thousands of litres of such chemicals into the ground and hope they have no short or long term affects on anything.

Jobs are great, but jobs at exactly what cost?

It’s the short sighted views like this that got us into this mess, we’ll get jobs alright but what about the very long term health and enviromental impacts

No way will this happen!

Regardless of the fact that it will employ some people for a few years, the environmental consequences are devastating!

I dont agree with what they are doing, but out of curiosity sent in CV asking for job admin etc. Got a badly photocopied standard reply saying all jobs are now filled. ???

Excellent and factual comment Stuart…if this was allowed to go ahead it would destroy the Shannon Erne Waterways and the lives of everyone and everything (wildlife/marine life/ flora) around them, not only that but Dublin will suffer badly to due to severe water shortages because the 350million liters of water a day which is soon to be pumped to Dublin from the Shannon will be no use to anyone.

@ Sue…the jobs promise is nothing more than a lie, this process requires a particular set of skills which are not available in Ireland (therefore workers would be shipped in from elsewhere), I imagine Tamboran replied to you saying ‘all jobs are now filled’ because there were very few to start with and most of their admin would be done in Australia.

Take a look at where the money for renewables is going. Do you think ‘green’ energy companies are run by hippies? Check out NTR for example. These corporations are in it to get their hands on taxpayers’ money funneled through government subsidies not because they want to save the planet. There is no profit in green energy because it is still uncompetitive against traditional sources.

@Tom I would agree that wind energy is only sustainable because of the vast amount of subsidies being thrown at it. Furthermore, wind energy can only ever be part of the solution as it has no reliability or consistency. It is part of the solution but not the solution.

Thank god it’s Leitrim so!

Intelligent insight there Gerry…

Back on topic… Richard won’t have to worry about fracking the Lough Allen basin… The land owners in the area have no intention of allowing Richard’s company next or near their land to allow fracking commence.

Brian, I believe that people are entitled to their opinions, and several people I have met in my career are legimately opposed to all industrial development. I respect those opinions.

However, I believe industrial energy is needed, especially since so many people worldwide suffer from a lack of electricity and sanitation.

Per my earlier comments, Tamboran will not utilize chemicals in its fracturing efforts, should the project one day be economically feasible and approved by regulatory authorities after a lengthy environmental impact assessment. Unfortunately, several websites (“What the Frack”, “No Fracking Ireland”, “No Fracking Cavan” to name a few) have frequently highlighted the claim made by the movie “Gasland” that many chemicals, indeed up to 600 chemicals, would be needed in this process. We ourselves could not know what was needed in Ireland until we completed our initial compositional assessment of the shale rock, which confirms that we do not need chemicals.

I strongly agree with you that every single company in the world should be required to disclose chemicals that they are putting into the ground via their hydraulic fracturing operations.

What is your company proposing to put into the ground then?

I agree – Gasland certainly does a thorough job of demonstrating several of the problems experienced in the US. However, all of these problems are completely preventable with diligent well construction practices and respect for landowners and residents. Gasland shows pieces of several plays in the US, but in reality, each potential project in the world is unique and must be approached differently. What we see in the movie should never happen. Ireland’s natural gas resources can be extracted safely with effective groundwater and air monitoring (before, during, and after all operations) and with very strictly monitored and enforced wellbore construction practices.

I have seen drilling rigs around Leitrim and Sligo and they are not drilling for domestic or commerical water !

Yay…cheap gas. And what water-basin is this particular area located in? What do you know – it’s in the Shannon water-basin. Where does most of the Shannon water come from – well, actually, it comes through the very shale that this company wants to “frack” (as well as surface sources). And where, thanks to government policy, will a lot of that water go? That’s right – Dublin. Enjoy your water when that happens.

As a further effect, that area depends on tourism for income. Tourists are not known for holidaying in industrial areas full of gas-wells. Introduce this to Ireland and you will create jobs in the gas sector but wipe out the tourism sector. Plus, all the future profits from this will go to a foreign (Australian) company, while wiping out all the current profits which currently go to local Irish businesses.

Brian, I agree with your word choice for “drill for gas”. However, we wrote this article nearly two weeks ago – it was subsequently edited by staff at the Journal, and they chose the final style. We also notice now that the word “already” appears twice in one sentence (my error of course). The editor(s) also put the title on the article. I appreciate their willingness to publish our article in response to the articles posted a couple of weeks ago, including the one by Johnny Gogan.

Regarding the jobs, if the project continues to appear economically feasible by December, Tamboran expects to launch training programs in the relevant Counties starting in 2012 to begin training local people in rig and wellbore operations. Training will occur in Ireland and the UK, and some of the training will be done near Aberdeeen at times as well. Tamboran would pay all training costs, and expects to pay people a salary while in training as well.

Only about ten people are expected to be involved in the drilling project from outside of Ireland. In my experience, a locally based wellsite rig worker is much more environmentally and socially responsible than a hired outsider. Also, a local worker can live close to work and will not experience the same stress as a worker living a great distance from home. These workers will be directly responsible for the safe operation of all equipment.

The drilling program could run from 10 to 15 years while the operation of the wells will require workers from 20 to 50 years.

We do not need to destroy a section of the country for a short term fix.

No one should ever have to trade reckless harm for the environment for any amount of economic activity.

@ Scribhneoir, a very thorough set of insightful questions and comments; I will try to address what I can so at least we can share the actual project plans with everyone reading your questions. You have asked so many of the very questions we will be anwering in public meetings starting this September and which will appear on our new website (to be released in the first week of September as well).

1. Property prices would only be impacted if negative things are happening, which we will not allow to happen. Home prices will rise when people move to the Counties in order to take up jobs associated with the new project, and as local businesses benefit from a significant increase in their revenue due to spending on the project. I hope that a project like this will help to reverse the flow of local citizens that are forced by need to move to Australia just to have a job.

2. Trucking/traffic impacts will primarily only happen for a few days during the initial ground-level construction of a multi-well pad. Afterwards, very little truck traffic will be required – the pads are designed to be as self-sufficient as possible for this very reason. We don’t expect to require new roads in most areas. The existing ones are adequate, based on our initial review. Diesel will be stored only as needed and in double-walled tanks with lined concrete floors and berms to contain any spills in the event of a leak. No fluids will ever enter the ground below or beside a Tamboran wellpad. As you say, diesel is too harmful to allow to spill anywhere. Our four water monitoring wells per pad would detect any contamination as well, and our rig crews will be drinking from those wells. All water samples will be posted regularly on our website and sent to regulators and County planners as well.

3. 24/7 wellsite operations are prohibited in Ireland. We would likely only ever be able to operate 12 hours per day. Ireland rules are quite strict about noise levels at any dwelling – 45 to 55 decibels max depending on time of day. We will be as far away from all dwellings, over a km in every single case, and we will use trees to buffer sound. Fracturing a well in Ireland is much simpler than in the US since the rock is much shallower; a US fracturing job might require 20 to 30 trucks to pump, whereas we are likely to need 5 or 6 only. The pumps are not that big for shallow depths as well. Fracturing takes a few days at most, so noise impacts will be quite low and intermittent.

4. The rainwater pond is expected to gather up to half the water, with the four water wells gathering the remainder. We need the four water wells primarily to monitor water quality on a consistent basis and for drinking water onsite. Hydrological maps and extensive discussions with water well drillers have confirmed that a person could put down a water well almost every 25 metres across western Ireland without interference to another water well. Our wells are likely to be 200 metres apart and will only pull as needed for water supply and monitoring. This will all be part of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment for each and every wellpad.

5. I don’t know what is planned for water rates in Ireland. I presume if they are charging people for water, then this might also fall under that category, which is all the more incentive for us to reduce water consumption per well.

6. Wellpads will take less than 1% of the land (5 acres = 2 hectares or less) over which the wells will be drilled. Equipment will be painted to blend into natural background and surrounded by trees to minimize noise and appearance. These pads will be located a long ways from any lake or vacation destinations. It’s the only way we’ll be able to keep at least 1 km separation from residences.

7. No refineries or processing facilities will be needed. This shale gas is expected to be 99% methane with normal minor trace amounts of Nitrogen, CO2, and ethane. We will only need to dehydrate the gas onsite with a small dehydration facility of all water (all gas, including the air we breathe has water vapour). Once dehydrated, the gas is ready for sale.

8. Returned water will be stored in tanks onsite (similar to diesel with lined concrete floor and berm to contain any possible spill). Returned water will be cleaned by an onsite water cleaning facility for reuse in the next fracture stimulation on the pad to reduce water usage.

9. Radioactive waste would be a frightening concern, as those problems continue to happen in small parts of the Marcellus Shale in the US. However, radioactive elements are rarely found able to move freely in shales, given their depositional history. Laboratory analysis of rock chippings of several wells drilled in the past 50 years in the Lough Allen Basin show no risk of mobile radioactive elements.

10. Methane leakage is a serious problem in many US plays because they continue to drill so many wells on single-well pads and they are frankly too careless and miserly to properly install vapour recovery units to gather fugitive emissions from water tanks. A central, multi-well pad gives us the efficiency to gather these emissions.

As you say, these are just several of the challenges, which are faced by natural gas projects everywhere in the world today. I hope you will agree that we are trying to address each and every risk factor in order to make our wellpad the most advanced onshore wellpad in the world today. These questions and concerns are exactly what have motivated us to undertake this design. We are not going to satisfy everyone of course, and we must earn trust through our actions above all else.

Thank you again for your comments and questions, which ensure that the company must listen.

With best regards,

Richard

@ Richard, comments and questions on some of your above points:
Your point 1: “Home prices will rise when people move to the Counties in order to take up jobs associated with the new project”
This is simply untrue: who in their right mind wants to live in a heavily industrialised area??? Local people, in the areas in question, respect and are keenly aware of the natural beauty of our environment and the tourism and life supporting resources it supplies and many thousands of people have moved here for these reasons. However you seem to think that because a few (maybe a couple of hundred) jobs would be created that people would flock to these areas and increase property prices!! This is just ridiculous.

Also can you guarantee your statement “Property prices would only be impacted if negative things are happening, which we will not allow to happen”… and if and when something goes wrong (as quite often things do go wrong despite best efforts) are Tamboran willing to subsidise/compensate home owners for the loss of value to their property???

Your point 3: “a US fracturing job might require 20 to 30 trucks to pump, whereas we are likely to need 5 or 6 only”
How on gods earth can a 5 acre concrete pad, all the equipment and machinery needed and water / sand be transported by only 5 or 6 trucks! I have laid small concrete pads (ie foundations for houses) and it will take a lot more that 5 or 6 cement trucks to supply the concrete alone needed to cover 5 acres (not including all the rest of the equipment/machinery etc).

Your points 7: What happens to the water with is extracted from the gas during dehydration?

Your point 8: “Returned water will be cleaned by an on site water cleaning facility for reuse in the next fracture stimulation on the pad to reduce water usage”
Are these water cleaning facilities capable of removing radon (and other possible radioactive substances) from the water? And if so how is the waste material, which is extracted from the returned water, disposed of? If these water cleaning facilities are not capable of removing radioactive material, aren’t you just pumping contaminated water back into the ground?

Your point 10: “install vapour recovery units to gather fugitive emissions from water tanks”..there maybe a breakdown in communication here but it is methane seeping into our streams, rivers, lakes and private wells which most people are concerned about, so what are you talking about when you mention “water tanks”. If methane escapes your concrete wellbores, I cant see how stopping it or preventing it from entering the watertable would be possible.

Mr. Moorman, it is obvious you are a PR pro and have many years of experience in media spin, however when looked at in detail your answers do not add up and quite frankly I don’t know what is more insulting to us, the fact you want to destroy our environment and waterways or the fact you think we will just lay down and accept your PR spin as fact, when clearly it is anything but.

I agree – many landowners and residents have been treated poorly by operators in the US. It is simply too easy for an office worker to ignore the pleas of someone that must live with their carelessness. Regulations need teeth to shut down operators when they endanger landowners through reckless practices.

@Eoin, we have previously stated that no chemicals will be injected into the ground – only water and sand, so no toxicity can enter the ground.

The only country to ban hydraulic fracturing is France, the same country that now supplies nuclear electricity to several countries in Europe including Ireland and continues to build nuclear power stations in several countries as well. France recently increased its nuclear spending by one billion Euros. Perhaps they are not motivated to ban fracturing for environmental reasons so much as a desire to increase their control of European power markets, given that shale gas is the only significant alternative to French nuclear power and Russian gas?

You are certainly entitled to your opinion of the project, as are all residents, landowners and business operators. I encourage you to come to the community meetings this September to hear what the actual project will look like. Government regulators from several agencies, County planners in the Counties of Cavan, Leitrim, and Fermanagh, and many County Council Members have also already been shown the project in order to keep them well-informed of the actual project status.

Stuart, pictures like this make me think of “moon craters” to me – it is an excessive surface impact. As you pointed out, Tamboran will utilize a drilling pad for several wells. One pad could house several to perhaps even 20 wells one day. Each pad would be 2 km to 4 km apart and take up less than 1% of the land under which the wells would be drilled. The pad enables many benefits, such as minimal surface footprint and efficient emissions capture so as to prevent fugitive emissions from being released into the atmosphere. All facilities are shared between wells, reducing the amount of equipment needed. All equipment on a pad can be painted to blend in to its environment and trees would be planted to surround the pad to prevent any industrial feel. Pads would always be located as far away from land owners and residents to prevent noise impacts. Best regards, Richard

@Stuart, also just a quick comment for you on the well spacing in the picture – The Jonah field in the US Rockies is actually drilled on what the industry calls “5-acre spacing”, meaning a well every 5 acres. In a square mile, that means 128 wells. The wells shown in the photo are less than 500′ (160 m) apart. It is an irresponsible level of surface impact, to say the least.

Rachel, thank you for your comments and questions too.

Per your question about whether our intention is legally binding, I suppose it nearly becomes so through our public statements. Certainly it would reflect poorly on Tamboran to perform otherwise now (or for any other operator in Ireland, for that matter). I would add that we did state this to a room full of representatives of six regulatory agencies from Northern Ireland in Belfast on Monday. We also met with a few County planners this week to share the same information, and we were fortunate to be invited to speak on the radio on Northern Sound in Monaghan on Wednesday to talk about the project as well. We have also shared this information by email with a few regulatory contacts in Ireland.

After having heard all the concerns raised by many people over the past few months, I made the decision to go to zero injected chemicals. Our completions specialist conducted computer modeling to show that we can do away with these chemicals entirely, albeit with a small increase in the cost of our program. This is mainly possible because all of the shale rock in Ireland is less than 1.5 km deep (average 1.0 km), whereas all major shale gas projects in the US range from an average depth of 1.5 to 3 km. For example, some of the additives used in the US are designed to reduce friction, which worsens if the rock is deeper.

It is my intention in the coming two weeks to write and publish a formal declaration of Tamboran’s commitment to utilize no fracture fluid chemicals as well as to outline our strict groundwater, air quality, and noise monitoring practices. Additionally, we will outline our robust well construction commitment to ensure that groundwater is protected by steel surface casing, steel intermediate casing, and engineered cements on every single well. Each well will be evaluated using a modern tool known as a Cement Bond Log which will have to be certified by the appropriate regulatory agency before any further drilling can proceed in each well.

I hope I have addressed some of your other points in my comments to the Scribhneoir Blog (above), and I can provide some additional comments.

In the most developed scenario, I envision for Tamboran at most 100 well pads spread across 100,000 acres in the north County Leitrim, west County Cavan, and the south edge of County Fermanagh. So, that would be a pad roughly every 1,000 acres (400 hectares). Each pad would not take more than 1% of the land over which the wells are drilled. We would do all we can to blend these into the landscape. The wellpad is intended to be as self-sufficient as possible to minimize traffic and noise after construction.

Combined with our best practices, I believe this makes the case for responsible development (as opposed to reckless harm). Having said that, I do appreciate your point that this is nonetheless a form of industrial activity and that it will have some impacts on the area.

I respect your right to question the value of any development in your community – I would do the same.

So, we at last come to the issue, as I see it at least: Given that this work will be free from injected chemicals and always conducted responsibly, can this new development be made to benefit the local communities as it seeks to produce a valuable product that creates new local employment for 15 to 50 years and generates significant local commerce, VAT, and taxes? Will residents work with us to make certain that the project is designed to accomodate all of their concerns and create value for them?

With best regards,

Richard

Tiffany, as you predict, individuals do not generally hold mineral rights in Ireland. The mineral rights are held and leased out by the government. We would never be allowed to enter the surface of any landowner that does not want a drilling pad on their land. In Ireland, I believe a horizontal wellbore could probably be drilled someday up to 2 km in length (Ireland’s shale rock is too shallow, only 1.0 to 1.5 km deep, to enable longer laterals). So, as you stated, a horizontal wellbore could reach underneath lands in all directions from a central drilling pad.

We believe the project is only viable in area amounting to about 100,000 acres (about 1/4th of our current mineral lease option of over 400,000 acres). The viable area ranges from the northern edge of County Leitrim into the west side of County Cavan and up to the south edge of County Fermanagh.

When a well is to be hydraulically fractured, it is subdivided into several compartments (called “stages”). Each stage is fractured. In the US, wells today will typically have between 6 and 20 stages, although some companies have experimented with even more stages. A well is thus typically fractured only once. I believe Gasland’s writers misunderstood this when they say that a well may be fractured up to 18 times in its lifetime. In reality, it might have 18 stages, but each stage is fractured once (at the beginning of the well’s life).

It is possible to “re-fracture” the well to try to improve natural gas production later on. Fracturing is very expensive (often $1 million to $3 million per well, so this is quite unlikely with modern wells. However, older wells, perhaps drilled several years ago, would likely have had only a few stages (1 to 3 versus the modern 6 to 20 stages). As a result, a “re-fracture” could actually improve an old well, and therefore you might choose to spend the money and hope to improve the well.

Thank you for your questions and comments. Best regards, Richard

@Miriam, actually I did respond to the “best practices” question yesterday as follows:

“Very best practice” for Tamboran means we will conduct groundwater and air monitoring before, during and after all operations. Also, we will utilize strictly monitored and enforced wellbore construction practices to ensure that the groundwater is protected by steel surface casing and steel intermediate casing, lined thoroughly by engineered cements and evaluated by a modern wellbore tool known as a Cement Bond Log. Additionally, this log wll have to be approved by regulatory authorities before the wellbore can be utilized for hydraulic fracturing. These practices will be done on every single well.

Also, to further the comments on this issue per your questions re: Fermanagh, Tamboran will be conducting these best practices in all of its global operations, from Ireland to Botswana to central Australia. The wellpad design that we are working on will be utilized in all countries as well, modified slightly for local planning needs of course. I believe these practices should be enforced in all countries as well.

I can’t of course speak for the other companies, but it would seem to me that now that Tamboran has stated to regulators and everyone else that it does not require chemicals in its fracture fluid, they would find themselves in an impossible position to now try to introduce chemicals.

You would have more experience with regulators here than me, of course, but it seems to me also that if Tamboran is stating that it expects the regulator to judge the quality of the Cement Bond Log before allowing us to proceed, then that is what they will do. The GSNI (Geological Survey of Northern Ireland) told us on Monday that they wold prepare to do exactly that in response to our request. Several agencies were also present to hear this statement, so I would expect this to be what happens going forward.

Regarding Southwestern, I was one of approximately 100 managers reporting to 12 Vice-Presidents reporting to 4 Executive Vice-Presidents reporting to a CEO in a 2,000 person company. Our team was not in the operational side of the business and wouldn’t have any exposure to Southwestern’s practices. My team was Strategic Analysis, which meant that we studied US supply and demand trends, the price of natural gas and oil, and the state of the global economy for the Vice President of Economic Planning and Acquisitions so as to advise Southwestern management on possible market risks.

Drilling standards are very high these days worldwide and utilize only bio-degradable muds. Over one million oil and gas wells have been drilled onshore worldwide, so that is a technology that works very well.

I don’t comment on studies, beyond saying that having lived in the North America all my life, I have come to distrust both “sides” of the debate on nearly all of these kinds of issues. Both sides are always telling us what’s good or bad for us, and I have long since decided to leave these discussions to policy experts. I stick with my own experience, having personally been involved directly in the drilling of about 200 wells in the 1990′s. I have seen the good that natural gas energy can do for people and the economy, and I will continue to work with my best practices.

Best regards,

Richard

Tamboran is Australian-based at this time. However, it is founded and majority owned by Patrick Elliott and Dr. David Falvey, both of whom have significant Irish ancestry. Patrick’s grandfather was married at a church many years ago within the boundaries of the proposed project, near the border with Northern Ireland. It was this ancestry that brought Patrick and Dave to look for natural gas in Ireland.

Interesting that Richard hasn’t been back yet to answer some of the questions posed to him… Wonder what the PR guys are saying to him now?

I hope that the above answers are in some way useful to your questions. Best regards, Richard

Itchy Brain, the editor put an interesting title and I suppose they did so to grab attention. Apparently mine was a bit boring and literal for them: “Tamboran Resources Op-Ed”. I think they have a point there.

We do believe this work can be done quite safely and responsibly, and without injected chemicals as well. We are working to utilize as many local businesses as possible and to eventually train local rig and well operators as well.

We expect that nearly 80% of all project spending, including local labour wages and VAT, will take place directly in Ireland and that this will consume 60% to 80% of revenue. Taxes will consume an additional 25% of the profit. The remainder will go initially to covering the initial project investment of at least 100 million Euros and to compensating all investors for their investment in the early stage risk of the project. A project of this size will likely have had to raise 1 to 2 billion Euros in its first few years before revenue from production from new drills can finally catch up to the high level of spending.

Hi Miriam

My apologies as it is difficult to describe some of these things precisely without pictures. We will be holding extensive community information meetings starting in September and running over the coming year (and will have a new website by early September) to thoroughly show and discuss these concepts. I agree with you that this project will create additional traffic; this will mostly occur during the initial pad construction. After that, the effects will be only a few truckloads every few months at the most (coinciding with new drills).

1. Regarding trucks vs truck trips; in order to conduct a fracture stimulation, we need trucks with pumps on the wellpad to pump water and sand into the shale rock about 1 km below the surface. We would only need 5 or 6 such trucks to do this job (bigger, deeper jobs in the US need 20 to 30 pumper trucks).

2. The most significant trucking on our wellpad will come from the initial construction. Once constructed, the pad will be utilized for 20 to 50 years on top of the initial 10 to 15 year drilling period, depending on the productive life of the wells. We are still comparing alternative methods of building the pad with local suppliers, so this will take a little longer to figure out. We should have this ready for the September meetings. Also, some of the site equipment will be hauled in (such as the gas/water separator and the water cleaning facility), but again this should only be a few more truckloads.

3. However, the majority of truck trips in the US projects are actually a result of bringing in water to the lease for the fracture stimulation. In the US, many plays need 3 to 10 million gallons per well (again, deeper plays with longer horizontal laterals).

4. We will only use 1 to 2 million gallons per well (2 is the most active case, which would mean the horizontal laterals are longer, and therefore we would need fewer pads). We will not need to haul in water, since we will be collecting rainwater and groundwater at the wellpad, so this will reduce most of the trucking.

5. There will still be some trucking for the sand, but this would only be a few truckloads.

6. As part of our project proposal, which is still 15 to 18 months away from submission to regulatory authorities, we must include a comprehensive environmental impact assessment which includes all traffic, noise, air, and water quality issues, to say the least. We are already in discussions with County planners about our project and we expect that they will tell us about all the road limitations. Tamboran will be obligated to repair at our cost all roads that we damage, so we have a huge incentive to not damage the roads. Our project would not receive approval if road damage was not paid for by Tamboran.

7. Regarding the water, we will collect as much as we can with rainwater and likely have to use about half from groundwater. The groundwater wells are similar to those used commercially right now by farmers conducting irrigation. About 100 of these wells are drilled each year in Ireland already, and to my knowledge they should require local planning approval to ensure they don’t impact other residents. We, like those farmers, will be quite spread out, so there will not be any impact on resident groundwater flows. We would actually be extracting less per year at these pads than most of those farmers currently utilize for irrigation since we would be drilling only a few wells per year per pad at most, whereas they irrigate frequently. The impact of all of these projects is actually quite small. I don’t think people realize just how much water is actually utilized by grain and meat production and existing industry in countries today, since we often just think of our personal in-home usage.

8. Also, please note that even in the most active case, we might have 20 wells drilled on a pad over a 10 to 15 year period, so there is a lot of time in between to gather rainwater. We will also be reusing all water recovered from previous fracture stimulations on those pads, so this should reduce our water usage by about 25% on each wells. We also need the groundwater wells for periodic water testing and to provide drinking water for our operators and rig crews.

9. I unfortunately don’t know the plans for the other operators either, and do encourage people to contact them. Of course, to be fair, they are at an early stage in the project too. Tamboran is actively pursuing several projects in Australia as well, so we need to move much more quickly to find the best place in which to start our operations. This is giving us the chance to share more information quickly with regulators, planning officials and residents.

10. Very good questions about the end of wellpads – Actually, all of the cleanup (“abandonment”) issues are requirements. We will be contractually obligated to the landowner to clean each wellpad and associated new roads to their original pristine condition. As part of the land contract, a slice of all revenue is required to go into an escrow account for future site reclamation. To properly secure a well (“abandon”) at the end of its productive life, an operator fills the well with cement up to near the surface. Then we dig down and cut off all steel and cement, and cap the well with steel at a depth of usually about 3 m (depends on local regulatory requirements). The ground is then restored to initial condition.

11. Good question on the chemical situation – we will utilize only sand and clean water. We will publish a declaration signed by myself and our Board of Directors to this effect in the coming two weeks and publish this in newspapers. We will never introduce toxic chemicals to the injected fluids.

It seems that a lot of people have belief that chemicals are needed, but this is not actually the case. Original hydraulic fracturing was just water and sand. The chemicals were added over time to reduce pumping friction and to try to enhance production – these are strictly optional (to be fair, if you’re working in very deep US plays, you need friction reducer – but we’re only looking at 1.0 to 1.5 km in Ireland). I know of a few companies trying to develop non-toxic versions, but as with most things, it comes down to having a market for the product – perhaps if more companies abandon the chemical route as we have, then they will recognize the immediate need for better products.

12. I do foresee a future where technology continues to improve, and chemicals companies are someday responsible enough and able to make non-toxic versions of some of the chemicals in use in the US today. For me, non-toxic means non-toxic in concentrated form, not just 99.5% diluted form, which is the usual US comment. If you can’t bake it into bread and eat it, it’s toxic. If such technology advances happen, we have already told several regulatory authorities at this past week’s meeting in Northern Ireland that we will seek their approval of such futuristic advanced non-toxic alternatives before we would use anything besides sand and water.

13. As you say, we don’t know what other companies plan to do, but I would expect that our imminent public declaration of zero injected fracture fluid chemicals combined with all of our planned wellbore and pad construction practices will make it very difficult for any operator in Ireland to do less than their absolute best.

With best regards,

Richard

Drilling has and always will utilise additives, these days in the forms of a biodegradable mud mixture of various chemical additives. With now several millions wells drilled worldwide over the past 100 years, the issue of drilling safety and environmental impact is not in question by any regulatory authority in the world. We have never said otherwise; it would not be possible to safely drill an oil or gas production well with only air or water. Additionally, drilling regulations in the EU and Ireland are far stricter than those in North America.

However, the concerns that have been raised locally in Ireland have been primarily around hydraulic fracturing, which will be free of all chemicals in all of our hydraulic fracturing operations. If a chemical-free fracture stimulation is unsuccessful in the project, then the project will end.

Of course, some people do not want any development to take place at all; they are quite welcome to continue to share those concerns with their representatives; we are focused on bringing the project forward with complete safety.

I think you are aware Richard that people in the industry use the term fracking to only describe the part of the process that is actual fracturing and that people outside the industry use the term loosely to describe the whole project – that difference in definition cannot have passed you by and you made very skilled use of the difference to infer that the project would be chemical free.
And, of course, the entire project will not be chemical free as you recently admitted in Carrick on Shannon.
Interestingly, there were quite a few differences between the information shared by your team in Enniskillen and the inforamtion shared by your team in Carrick on Shannon. One example being your geologist saying that sandstone does not release radon gas in Fermanagh and having an about-turn by the time he had traveled to Leitrim.
I am not going to list each difference, that would be tiresome and useless in any case as you have PR patter for every situation.

Stuart, thanks again for your questions.

1. As part of our work, Tamboran would be contractually obligated to the landowner(s) to remediate any and all sites that we use in the project. And yes, it is reasonable to expect that if we created a problem, we would have to pay to clean it up. In our specific project plan, let’s imagine a situation where we elect not to proceed further with the project after drilling the first few wells: If we do not proceed with the project at that time, we are obligated to restore the wellpad to its original condition.

In the case where the project moves forward, it is common practice for the operator to set up an escrow account and to pay into this account over time to ensure that funds exist to eventually remediate all wellpads at the end of the useful life, which could be up to 50 years after drilling.

2. Fortunately, there are no salt deposits near to the target Bundoran shale in our area. It is tightly sealed above and below by the Mullaghmore Sandstone (above) and the Dowra Sandstone and Ballyshannon Limestone (below). I could certainly see how a porous salt deposit would create a problem. However, all shale is also salty, which is the main reason that recovered water must in no circumstances be allowed to spill onto the ground since salt water will harm plants. In the past, this salt water stopped companies from trying to reuse the water in subsequent wells, since they incorrectly believed they could not use salty water. Today, we know that we can use water with salt concentrations up to 100,000 parts per million in the fracturing process.

3. Stuart, we will unfortunately not know what the production rates could average until we have drilled several wells. However, the decline profile of shale gas wells is quite similar from project to project. I have personally published research on the decline “curves” of shale gas wells and have studied the production data from over 10,000 Barnett Shale wells. Hard to describe without a picture, of course. An average well does decline steeply in the first few years, but the decline rate flattens out after about year 5.

The production I am referring to in our project refers to the total production from the project; so while each well does decline steeply, the total project continues to grow as new wells are drilled. Presuming we drill for about 15 years, then production will rise each year of the project and then begin to decline a few years after drilling stops. A well can be economic to produce for 20 to 50 years, depending on its unique decline rate (and of course, the price of natural gas).

This is quite different from an offshore project like Corrib, in which peak production is achieved quickly, held flat for a few years, and then declines. The difference is that we continue to drill, whereas offshore drilling usually finishes in the first few years of a new development.

4. Good, challenging question – I utilize the word “implies” because the film doesn’t explicitly show you poor well construction such as bad cement and a lack of groundwater monitoring, doesn’t show you actual measurements of the air quality, suggests that there are “too many” wells nearby by having the people in the movie count wells from a given place, and then has the people in the movie say that they are not receiving a satisfactory response from the companies (unfortunately, not credible because some people in the US will say anything to be on TV). So, the audience receives a circumstantial discussion, but virtually no evidence beyond the narration about the terrible things that are happening to people. A person emerges from the movie theatre with a bad feeling about the industry, but has learned very little about why this has happened. And that’s when producers jump out to blame it all on hydraulic fracturing, which is just a technology, instead of placing the blame squarely on the reckless, disrespectful people masquerading as an oil and gas company.

Whereas, I know that many of these companies rarely check the groundwater and air quality before, during and after operations, rarely check the quality of the cement operations in their surface casing with a cement bond log tool, almost never install and cement the intermediate casing to surface, and have almost no regard for surface impacts resulting from the excessive number of drilling pads in a square mile. So, I am comfortable saying there are poor practices even though the movie does not explicitly show them, but rather implies them from the side effects on the people and environment. Anyways, I get a bit worked up about how reckless these practices have been in some companies when so much is at stake for land owners, and especially when you consider how inexpensively all of these mistakes could have been prevented in the first place in comparison to the $3 million to $10 million cost of a US shale gas well.

Best regards,

Richard

Jo, thank you for your comments and questions.

As you predict, a certain amount of industrialization is inevitable with a successful project, even though the Ireland project is actually of a small scale compared to those in the US (1,000 potential Ireland wells versus a typical US shale gas project that would have potential for 10,000 to 100,000 wells – The Barnett Shale already has over 17,000 wells). Ireland might one day have four drilling rigs onshore versus the 1,300 currently working in the US.

The wells are of course on shared pads, so all that sticks out of the ground on the well is some piping and a few valves, which yes, are easily painted. However, the main issue for appearance would be tankage on site (likely concrete water tanks), which would have to be painted to blend in and then surrounded by trees to obscure their presence and significantly reduce noise.

Noise falls off sharply with distance, and we will maintain at least a 1 km separation at all times from all residences. Ireland has very strict noise guidelines for operations. Actually, Ireland has a lower population density than nearly every country in the EU and is lower than Texas, home to nearly 40% of US production. Initial pads will be very far away from residents.

We are still deciding the base and surface materials for each drilling pad, so not yet precise on trucked amounts – we have to include all of that information and much more in the environmental impact assessment, which has not yet started and will take over a year to complete. For pad materials, poured concrete is most likely over a crushed rock base in much the same way a parking lot would be constructed. These materials are recyclable at the end of the useful life of the pad. Truck journeys per well will only be significant for a few days during the initial construction period of each pad.

We will start with one pad of course with just a few wells. In the most active case, 100 pads would be spread over 100,000 acres, with perhaps 2 or 3 pads being built each year in each county. So, there could be periodic traffic and noise during those few construction periods a year in the long run. Of course, that presumes much, and we would not likely reach that pace of development for 5 to 10 years.

Over time, we will try to make the horizontal laterals longer in order to reduce the number of pads required, so that we can place them 4 km apart instead of the initial 2 km planned separation.

The pad system significantly reduces the project footprint and minimizes surface impacts. However, as you say, there will nonetheless be periodic traffic.

Best regards,

Richard

John, thank you for your questions. I can answer most of your questions tonight, but will need to check with my facility designer to answer your question about noise levels immediately next to the pad (and will post that as soon as I can)

1. We refer to ground level (so our 1,500 m is 1,500 m below the surface of the ground as opposed to sea level).

2. Shales typically work best when they are deeper (because the gas pressure is higher and so more gas is contained in the rock at depth). We will start with wells between 1,000 and 1,500 m deep and might one day be able to move up to 500 m, but that is likely too shallow to obtain enough of a gas flowrate to justify the expense of the well.

3. In the deepest areas of the play, the Mullaghmore sandstone and the Benbulben Shale sit just on top of the Bundoran Shale and might also be productive. The Mullaghmore was the reason that about a dozen wells have been drilled in the past 50 years in the Lough Allen area, but unfortunately was not sufficiently productive with old production methods. The Benbulben Shale has never been tested. So, unfortunately, these are only hopes at this stage and would only be deep enough in the middle of the basin.

4. Good question on the underground flows in the limestone cave systems. We visited the Shannon Pot and toured the Marble Arch caves on our first trip to Ireland in June. We would never drill anywhere near these caves. Fortunately for all of us, the shale is far too shallow in those areas for us to drill.

As a set of side notes, we are fortunate to have Dr. Tony Bazley as our Senior Corporate Advisor in Ireland to advise us on all regulatory and environmental issues – Dr. Bazley is an Earth Sciences specialist and personally inspects the Marble Arch Caves twice per year to advise the Geopark leadership on how to best protect the caves and tourists. He knows just how delicate those areas truly are and they must be protected. Also, as good luck would have it, our consulting geologist (he works for SLR Environmental Consultancy) is a frequent caver in the Marble Arch caves and has been involved several times in mapping the system and helped write a book on the caves)

5. I am glad you have heard of this technology – we will utilize microseismic mapping, which is believed accurate to within a few metres of actual cracking. This technological is frankly amazing, since it shows us in real-time and in 3D exactly where the hydraulic fracturing is taking place. With this technology, we are able to understand hydraulic fracturing patterns in the shale.

6. Groundwater in Ireland has been observed as deeply as 100 m. We expect we will set our steel surface casing at about 130 metres to ensure we are solidly in the rock below groundwater. Then we will cement it in place with engineered cement and measure the cement with a Cement Bond Log. At that stage, we will personally require the regulator to review our log before giving consent to drilling any deeper. Our drilling formation will initially be 1 km or deeper, but we might someday go as shallow as 500 m. After drilling deeper, but before fracture stimulation, we will install steel intermediate casing and cement it in place to surface and log it as well to ensure that the hydraulic fracture pressure can never break through the well.

7. I should clarify the statement – it would be 5 or 6 trucks (not trips) versus 20 to 30 trucks in the US per frac job. The only time there would be significant traffic would be during initial wellpad construction of the base (much the way you could construct a parking lot). The pad could hold many wells, maybe even 20 someday in the very best case (to minimize the number of pads).

In the US, the majority of trips are needed to move the water (and some for sand as well) to a well for each frac job. We are trying to make our pads as self-sufficient as possible – In our multi-well drilling pad design, all of our water would be gathered and stored onsite, so there would be no need for truck traffic for water. This will save hundreds of truck trips over the life of all the wells on the pad. This should be done in the US too, but they generally have no rules about surface impact.

We have heard the traffic and surface impact concerns raised many times by people in Ireland (and also in the Gasland movie) and so we chose to utilize pads immediately – we are going to build the most advanced onshore wellpad design in the world for shale gas.

To be clear on Thur Mountain, the mountain itself is environmentally designated, so we would not drill on top of it. We hope to one day propose to drill in the approximately 20 km radius surrounding the mountain (so your estimate is very good). Of course, we have a lot of work to do on environmental impact assessments over the next 12 to 15 months before we can propose a drill.

The area is filled with trees, which will help reduce noise and reduce appearance of the pads as well. Our first pad will likely be quite remote in that way. We will stay as far away from houses as possible, and always 1 km or more. We want to show people that this can be done safely with minimal disturbance, so we will definitely be staying far away from residences. We have a lot of flexibility since we can drill the horizontal wells for 1 to 2 km in all directions from a central wellpad.

Per my comment at the start of this email, I will have to ask the pad designer for the estimated noise level at the edge of the pad (for the two situations of drilling and hydraulic fracturing). We will not continually drill on a pad – In the most active case, drilling will take two to three weeks every few months at best. Fracturing will be the noisiest, but will only go for a few days each time a well is drilled (so every few months, again only in the most active case).

Thank you for your insightful questions.

Best regards,

Richard

John, I received a response from my wellpad designer to your question about noise levels immediately adjacent to the pad. Here is his response:

“Generally the noisiest component onsite are coolers and fans, which will operate no higher than 75dBA, so at edge of lease 60 to 65dBA could be expected.”

Ireland’s rules require us to keep noise levels below 55 decibels at residences during the daytime (and 45 at night, but we won’t have drilling or fracturing operations at night – working at night is less safe anyways, nomatter how many lights you install)

So, as you see, we could never put one a wellpad immediately next to a residence. Noise does of course fall off greatly with distance, but we have chosen a 1 km buffer around all residences for wellpads to absolutely minimize noise impact. We will also place trees around the wellpad to block sound. We will also be conducting regular noise testing as part of our environmental monitoring throughout the life of the project.

With best regards,

Richard

I have seen this issue raised a few times, and I believe some perspective is needed. By the logic presented above, every single employee of a company is liable for every single action, mistake or accusation leveled against a company, and every citizen guilty of the actions of a country’s government.

Regarding Southwestern, I was one of approximately 100 managers reporting to 12 Vice-Presidents reporting to 4 Executive Vice-Presidents reporting to a CEO in a 2,000 person company. Our team was not in the operational side of the business and wouldn’t have any exposure to Southwestern’s practices. My team was Strategic Analysis, which meant that we studied US supply and demand trends, the price of natural gas and oil, and the state of the global economy for the Vice President of Economic Planning and Acquisitions so as to advise Southwestern management on possible market risks.

In fairness to Southwestern, they have drilled over 2,500 natural gas wells with only a dozen or so suspected well failures. American culture is comfortable with such “collateral damage”, but I am not. If even one Tamboran well failed in this way over the possible 10 to 15 year drilling period, it would mean the end of the program. We will certainly not take the risks typical of American companies. We will engage strictly in the best practices I have outlined in the above comments.

Stuart, thank you for your acknowledgement. I appreciate that you and other commentators have made the time to write your concerns, personal comments, and challenges on this website, giving me a chance to hear them directly and to provide some additional information.

As you say, the discussions on American websites are frequently unhelpful, to say the least. I don’t see how they will ever fix their problems, when all they seem to do is argue.

This project has many economic, technical, and socal challenges ahead of it. Words are a good start for us, but it will be our responsibility to earn trust and to try to receive from residents the privilege to operate in their communities. Our actions will determine whether we will one day ultimately deserve that trust.

With best regards,

Richard

Stuart, we will not know for certain until several wells were drilled, but we currently believe the Bundoran Shale most closely resembles the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas, which now produces each day over 3 times as much gas as the entire country of Ireland actually consumes each day. It is a dry, clean shale with no oil present, which makes it easy to produce without processing facilities.

Regarding techniques: Every oil and gas operator in the world, including offshore operators, are capable of cementing all of their surface and intermediate steel casings all the way to surface, and then could run the cement bond log tool to ensure the cement is secure and the groundwater is safe. While all operators do cement a surface casing in place, almost none of them ever check the cement bond with the tool. Many operators also never install cement to surface in their intermediate steel casing (a lack of cement to surface means the groundwater would not be protected from the high injection pressure of hydraulic fracturing).

No other operators have thus far utilized a zero chemical fracture stimulation, mainly because the chemicals are used to reduce the cost of pumping the fracture stimulation and to enhance production. They have such confidence in their work that they do not believe their wells will fail – but without a cement bond log, they can not have that confidence.

We intend to make a public, binding declaration signed by all Directors of Tamboran’s Board in the coming two weeks as to our safe practices, zero injected chemical fracture stimulations, and essential environmental practices. We are making this declaration in response

In some parts of the US, a zero chemical frac job would be impossible because the most of their rock is too deep (2 to 3 km deep) and so the friction of pumping water would be too high. In Ireland, we will only initially work in rock at depths of 500 m to 1500 m or less, so our friction losses without chemicals are not too high. It will cost us more to not use chemicals, and the wells might not be quite as productive, but it is essential for us to not use injected chemicals so that everyone can see that we have the highest commitment to safe operating practices in Ireland.

I also have some personal hopes that our upcoming announcement will help to put pressure on oil and gas operators everywhere to improve their wellbore practices and reduce their chemical usage.

Hello SMcB, I am slowly catching up – I hope you will see my comments above to your prior statement as well.

Hi Jo,

Good questions. We’re at quite an early stage of course, but I will try to give a concise view of potential long-term plans.

1. Tamboran currently holds a Licensing Option, which gives us up to two years (into early 2013) to fulfill our work commitment of analysing and reprocessing existing data (collected by prior operators over the past 50 years) as well as drilling shallow (100m to 200m deep) boreholes (like a quarry or mine would do, in order to collect some more rock samples).

2. We are also currently scoping out all requirements for an Environmental Impact Assessment (with significant effort by SLR Environmental of Dublin) and expect to proceed with a 12 month assessment starting this September. This EIA is not required for the Licensing Option, but we will need an EIA to eventually proceed to request permission to drill.

3. Once we fulfill our work commitment, hopefully within the coming year, we can prepare an application in combination with the EIA to move to an exploration permit and ask for permission to drill on a specific wellpad in a specific area.

4. Our lease option covers nearly 420,000 acres, but probably only the middle 100,000 acres are worth exploring. Our primary exploration focus is the Bundoran Shale, with secondary potential in the Mullaghmore Sandstone and Benbulben Shale. In order to be sufficiently productive, a rock formation likely has to be at least 500 m below the surface of the ground in order to have enough gas pressure. The current lease options goes right to the edges of the rock formations where they rise all the way to surface. These are known as outcrops. As a side note, the rock formations often receive their names (Bundoran Shale) from where they outcrop at surface (near Bundoran of course). However, anything shallower than 500 m is likely too shallow to produce at an economic rate, which leaves us with a relatively small area in the middle of the overall basin, likely centered around Thur Mountain.

5. We can’t of course drill on Thur Mountain because it is environmentally designated, nor would we want to be on a high slope (for several operational and visual reasons), but from prior drills by other operators over the past 50 years, we know that the general area surrounding Thur Mountain is over 500 m deep (and up to 1500 m deep in places as you go south). This means that our most likely development area is roughly an area of 100,000 acres (nearly 400 square km) that would range from the northern part of County Leitrim, the western side of County Cavan, and the southern edge of County Fermanagh.

6. We currently expect that we can drill up to 1 km away from a central wellpad, and that wellpad could hold up to 10 or even 20 wells someday. So, if you picture wells extending from a central pad in 1 km each way, we could place a new wellpad every 2 km. Each pad would roughly then allow the underground development of roughly 4 square km, although on surface the pad would be much smaller than that area, perhaps 2 ha in size (1% of the land involved). In theory, approximately 100 pads could be fit into our focus area, representing about 1,000 wells.

7. Someday, we might be able to extend new horizontal wells up to 2 km in all directions, enabling us to develop underground areas of about 16 square km from a single pad (4 km between pads), which would materially reduce the number of pads we would need as well as the total number of drills. However, initially we can’t be sure that can happen, so we are likely to propose 1 km long horizontal wells until we learn more about the shale rock.

8. If all moves forward, the earliest drill on a wellpad could be initiated in late 2012, likely early 2013. If successful, we have to conduct additional EIA’s and apply for additional planning permission for subsequent wellpads. In the most active case, in five to seven years, we might be developing as many as 10 well pads per year (approximately 3 in each of the Counties mentioned above per year). It would likely take us 10 to 15 years to develop all wellpads, depending on how many pads are ultimately needed (and how many wells are drilled). A shale gas well typically declines quickly in the first few years, but will produce economically for between 20 and 50 years. By drilling more wells each year, total production from the project would grow each year for up to about 15 years before beginning to decline gradually thereafter.

Thank you for your questions.

Best regards,

Richard

Dear Nicola, thank you for your comments and question.

We have previously sent the community meeting information around to many people that are part of our email distribution list, as well as a few leaders and spokespeople for the anti-development groups, so I am glad to hear that some local people have been posting it.

We also issued it to the specific reporter in each County for each paper that has been most involved in reporting on the project. Our advertisements were provided last week directly to the newspapers Fermanagh Herald, The Impartial Reporter, The Anglo-Celt, and The Sligo Champion and will also be rotated something like 120 times during peak hours on Shannonside and Northern Sound radio. Each paper has different cutoff dates for advertising, so I am not sure when they will appear in print. I will follow up and report back.

Also, if I may add, it is not a requirement to hold consultation meetings of any kind at this stage, since we currently hold only a Licensing Option in the Republic of Ireland, so these meetings are completely for information only. We still have at least 15 months of environmental impact and baseline assessments ahead of us before requesting any planning permission to move forward, if the project still appears viable after more detailed study.

We are holding these community information meetings strictly to inform residents, since several concerns have been raised by people. We have invited residents, Councillors, planners, regulatory officials, media and camera crews to attend to see first-hand how the project could proceed. Our commitment is complete openness so that you can know as much as you want to about us and our project.

Unfortunately, in the absence of early information from us, some people have been sending out incorrect information that presumes that this project will look something like a typical project in the US, which is completely inaccurate. We have taken only the best practices from North America, and of course Ireland’s (and EU) rules and our own operating procedures are much stricter than anything seen in the US. We would like residents to hear this all for themselves so that they can provide us with their legitimate, personal feedback. Since we would someday like to operate in your community, it is your right to hear everything from us, and to give your comments, and we will do our best to make certain we meet your requirements for this project. I look forward to meeting you at the Sept 6 County Fermanagh meeting at the Westville hotel at 7 pm. There will be refreshments starting at 6:30 as well.

We will also have handouts including our signed declaration from our Board of Directors committing to zero-chemical hydraulic fracturing as well as the most stringent environmental monitoring and wellbore construction practices ever yet applied to a shale gas project by any company.

With best regards,

Richard

An advertisement is also placed in the Leitrim Observer, thanks

Hi Miriam,

Not to worry, as I have occasionally been accused of repeating myself. Tamboran Resources will soon publish a full environmental policy declaration (to be signed by the Board of Directors). In addition to various commitments to wellbore construction practices and water/noise/etc monitoring, we will state that Tamboran will never utilize injected fracture fluid chemicals.

With that declaration, if the project is not viable, then we would never come back later to ask for chemicals, for the following reason: “If the rock doesn’t crack by injecting just water with sand, then this project would never be economically viable with any added chemicals either. Tamboran will not inject any chemicals into its hydraulic fracturing jobs, not now – not ever”.

I would also add that even if we succeed at cracking the rock, there remains a significant chance that the natural gas flowrate from the rock would be insufficient to justify the cost of the project – we really can’t know the flowrate until we actually drill some wells.

Some people seem genuinely surprised that we could contemplate fracturing without chemicals. Let me assure those people that if you push 1 million gallons of water (4000 cubic metres) into 9 million gallons of rock (36,000 cubic metres), as in our proposed horizontal wellbore for Ireland, then believe me – the rock will crack.

In the US, chemicals are usually only around 0.5% of the volume (so, 20 cubic metres out of each 1 million gallons), which would hardly be effective at cracking much rock. Chemicals are primarily used to save money on injection costs and to optimize production – they do not create production.

In our case, we could use a chemical to reduce friction and save money on pumping equipment, or I can use bigger diameter wellbore casing, or I can add another truck to pump harder to overcome the extra friction – all of these choices would cost money. We are choosing a chemical-free injected fluid approach despite the extra costs to eliminate chemical concerns for everyone.

For those that look for some additional angle to our declaration, I will add that the only exception that I could possibly ever theoretically envision to our declaration is if several years from now, some day after we have perhaps drilled 50 or more wells, somebody actually advances the science of fracture fluid chemistry to the point of creating a completely non-toxic additive, then we will consider it only if the additive is fully approved by regulators and community officials in Ireland and only after public consultation. Note that non-toxic means harmless at full concentration; you could bake it into bread and eat it, for example. If people were opposed to such a non-toxic additive, then just as today, we would not include the additive.

However, since the science of non-toxic additives has virtually no market today in the US, I doubt very much that this situation will come to pass anytime soon.

Thank you for your questions.

With best regards,

Richard

Firstly how do you envisage working over the winter with no anti-freeze?

Secondly – excerpt RM: “We would actually be extracting less per year at these pads than most of those farmers currently utilize for irrigation since we would be drilling only a few wells per year per pad at most, whereas they irrigate frequently. The impact of all of these projects is actually quite small. I don’t think people realize just how much water is actually utilized by grain and meat production and existing industry in countries today, since we often just think of our personal in-home usage.”

– surely you do know what part of the country you are preparing to operate in? The amount of water used by the majority of farmers in the areas licenced is nowhere near what you describe for large meat of grain farms. It would seem to me that you do not really understand the area of country you intend to industrailize for up to 50 years with well pads, drill rigs, numerous large concrete tanks, artificial water holding ponds etc.

As we discussed previously, each project is unique, since each one is based in different areas, with different rock, and unique infrastructure.

Training local people to do the work of maintaining a natural gas project does not pose any difficulties; Ireland has many well educated people, certainly in comparison to the rural areas of most US states. We expect to start our first, fully-paid training programme in the spring of 2012 in County Leitrim, Fermanagh or Cavan.

The cost to shuttle people back and forth from North America would be ridiculous. It takes me nearly 20 hours door-to-door to leave from Calgary to arrive in the project area. That’s a long commute. Why would any employer wish to pay hundreds of workers to shuttle back and forth 20 hours or more each way just to go to work, when there are so many capable people locally in Ireland? And for that matter, people with a rural/farming background make the best workers for these projects, in which they are needed to be reliable and can pay attention to the work right in front of them. After all, they are looking after millions of Euros worth of equipment; we want responsible workers that are happy to work close to home and that already take care of their communities.

Additionally, our project will utilise only 5 or 6 trucks onsite to pump the fracture stimulation. Most of our truck trips are eliminated by having water onsite, with only a few truck trips needed for sand for each well.

The majority of the workers in our project will be responsible for looking after the wellpads. With 8 to 16 wells, plus water treatment facilities and periodic environmental monitoring (water/air/noise), each wellpad will create about 5 net jobs, not including essential maintenance, IT, and office staff that will work across several wellpads.

We currently estimate approximately 800 or more local jobs in total, paying an average of 70,000 euros per year in base salary, for 30 to 50 years.

Best regards,

Richard

@What the Frack, I also noticed yet another comment in your attached article that is in error about chemicals; we have repeatedly stated that we will treat water at surface, with good circulation to prevent algae growth and the use of our onsite water cleaning facility – there is no need for biocide in the fracture stimulation if you use clean water.

In the US, they often take their water from lakes, rivers, or algae-filled ponds, so they must use a biocide whereas we simply won’t have to.

Similarly, as we told you previously and every media outlet that calls to ask, we won’t be utilising chemicals of any sort in our hydraulic fracturing stimulations – not us, not some “sub-contractor”, and not anybody associated with our project.

It’s always amazing to me how some people and some companies keep doing the same old thing, such as using biocide, instead of looking for a technology solution. In our project, we are utilising the best practices from North America and taking things a few steps beyond in several design aspects as well.

Best regards,

Richard