Europe & Environment: No Cut and Paste Solutions

When it comes to approaching the environmental challenges presented by unconventional gas development in Europe, there’s no “one size fits all” way to approach them.

So said John Damanti, Vice President of Oil & Gas at URS International Operations at Shale Gas World 2011. His speech to delegates was entitled The Shale Gas Experience in North America: How Can Environmental Lessons Learned be Transferred to Europe?

He said that regarding the environment, stakeholder challenges just kept coming back up for shale gas.

“This is not copy-paste,” he stated of environmental issues, explaining that he first came to Europe 17 years earlier, working on contaminated land issues.

“We knew there were some issues that hadn’t been dealt with,” recalled Mr. Damanti.

“The number of gas wells has doubled since 1990,” he said of the US. “We hadn’t been fraccing where we’re doing it now - it’s a lot to do with fears and lack of information. This is not replicating what we did in the past, but doing it better.”

“These maps are changing constantly,” Damanti said, showing a map of unconventional resources in the US. He added that another map of shale plays in Europe also had to be changed, “because it’s been changing so much in the last seven months.”

He noted that there was a big difference in regards to the size of the plays, the Marcellus alone being bigger than the shale plays in Poland.

In connection with that activity, Damanti said the three top environmental concerns were: “water, water and water,” in terms of supply, flowback/processed water management, and surface water.

He gave mention to “NORM” – naturally occurring radioactive material, adding that the phenomenon existed with the North Sea hydrocarbons, but as it was diluted there it was not a problem.

“We’ve heard a lot about how fraccing occurs and that it can’t leak back up,” he said, “but this is about how we handle our activities at the surface.”

He asked: “What is our whole environmental impact and how can we lessen that footprint?”

Flowback, he said could reach 5% in the Haynesville shale, but up to 80% in the Rocky Mountain plays. “What are we going to do with that water? What are our possible management options?”

Fracture Fluid Composition, he said, was among the primary environmental concerns.

“It will be required by law to publish this information,” Mr. Damanti reported. “This is not a battle we’re going to win.”

He said that the industry had moved quickly, and wanted to move at a sustainable pace concerning flowback water – and waste water management. 

He commented: “The drinking water standard may not be appropriate, it may be entirely over the top. Why? Is it just an easier thing for a regulator to do?”

There were lots of different ways to manage flowback water, according to him, among them evaporation, injection/via disposal wells, or discharge to publicly owned treatment works.

“They may not even be monitoring it,” he said of the latter, “so it could be a liability issue years down the line. One has to look at it in all its complexity and adapt.”

Mr. Damanti told the audience he was from New York, and had studied in that area of the state where the water table was, which was a more rural area than New York City. “The people who caused the moratorium,” he explained, “are the city dwellers from the NYC area; they have a lot of political sway. These issues get quite complex.”

He surmised how the North American experience of such issues might influence environmental practices in Europe.

Of the hydraulic fracturing moratoriums, he said, “We don’t want what happened in New York or in France to happen here.”

He suggested requiring a third intermediate layer of cement casing for shale gas wells.

“We need to be careful of what we do, as a single instance of contamination could lead to a political panic.”

Mr. Damanti questioned whether the industry should set money aside to hire qualified regulators. He said it was key to have knowledge of water quality prior to shale gas development.

Of the upsides of shale gas E&P, he named being involved in coalitions that could influence what happened, new jobs, and new tax revenues.