THE EXPLORATION OF SHALE GAS BEGINS Several Romanian regions, in the sights of the shale gas seekers

After recently securing the agreement of the authorities to install the first well in Bârlad, in order to exploit shale gas, American company Chevron has continued its steps for exploration in the county of Constanţa as well.

Prospecţiuni SA, the company controlled by Ovidiu Tender, which is conducting the geophysical studies for Chevron, has begun prospecting about 40 km away from Constanţa, in the perimeter of the towns of Plopeni and General Scărişoreanu.

In august, BURSA reported that Prospecţiuni SA owned by billionaire Ovidiu Tender had begun exploration in the Podişul Hârtibaciului area, which spans the counties of Braşov, Mureş and Sibiu.

It would seem that the seekers of shale gas have also set their sights on the Bihor area, as the residents of several villages of Bihor have accused certain companies, in the beginning of October, that they have destroyed their crops and roads by exploring for unconventional resources.

According to the representatives of Prospecţiuni, the procedure of exploring for shale gas in the region of Constanţa was initiated recently, as the researchers were present in the area to determine whether such mineral reserves exist below the surface. As for prospecting the underground, the officials of the company owned by Tender told us that it is no different than the one which allows detecting the conventional reserves of oil and gas.

Currently, the experts of Chevron are in the seismic exploration phase, an analysis method which involves sending sound waves at high depth. Studying the echoes of those sound waves which return to the surface, geologists can easily find out where the oil and natural gas deposits are located, the quoted source also says.

The residents of Plopeni and General Scărişoreanu, the communes of Constanţa within the perimeters of which the prospecting has begun, are wary when it comes to the activities which Chevron has begun in the area, and they are particularly concerned about potential water contamination or the occurrence of micro-earthquakes.

The officials of Prospecţiuni claim that, for now, with the exception of the towns in Bârlad and Constanţa, there are no other regions of the country where prospecting for shale gas is taking place.

• Chevron wells in Vaslui

The Americans of Chevron will begin the construction of a well for the exploration of shale gas in the Siliştea perimeter, the Pungeşti commune in the county of Vaslui, after the County Council released the first authorization which would allow them to conduct this type of works.

According to the submitted documentation, the works for the set up of the platform and the placement of the exploration well will cost around 3 million lei. The works will be completed within 120 days, of which 2 months are allocated to the set up of the drilling platform, and in the next two months samples would be taken.

"The goal of the proposed project is to dig an investigation drill and of taking the rock samples for determining the geological and physical characteristics of the layers crossed by drilling in order to find the geological structures which could potentially carry hydrocarbons, of the possibilities to extract the potential resources if they are found. The information obtained following the exploration drillings will be studied to appraise the resulting economic potential, and will be presented to the ANRM", the document filed by Chevron with the Vaslui County Council states.

The Chevron drill will be placed outside the Pungeşti commune, 650 meters from de Siliştea and 950 meters from the Pungeşti village, and the extraction platform will have a surface of 20.298 meters. The depth at which the drilling will be done is 3,000 meters, according to the quoted document.

Some experts who studied the phenomenon are not too happy with the assembly of a drill near Siliştea as, according to some US studies, the water sources less than 1 kilometer away from the shale gas explorations or exploitations can be contaminated with methane, as they increase the risk of diseases such as cancer among the people in the area.

Chevron also officially owns three zoning permits in the county of Vaslui for the exploration of the soil in order to find the potential shale gas reserves.

According to some voices in the market, in the county of Vaslui, there will be approximately 2,800 drills which will explore or exploit the shale gas. Also, following the calculations of a non-governmental environmental agency, in order to frack the entire perimeter leased to Chevron in the county of Vaslui, it would take a quantity of water equal to the consumption of the city of Bârlad for the next 300 years.

• Harmful effects

Shale gas is exploited through hydraulic fracking, with drills that go to very high depth, first vertically, and then horizontally, leading to changes in the Earth's crust, according to some studies.

Researchers have shown that fracking is similar to an earthquake, as the rock has to be crushed first, so that the gas can be released. As a result, the occurrence of micro-earthquakes, is one of the effects of the exploitation of shale gas, researchers also say. According to the studies, in order for the reserves of shale gas to be brought to the surface, very large quantities of fracking liquid are used. Some researchers have claimed that for a single well which drills for shale gas 10 to 40 million liters of water are used.

In the end, after the gas is brought to the surface, the millions of liters of toxic fluid come up, the shale gas studies review. Since high-volume hydraulic fracking is a rather new method and hence has lacked regulation in the United States for a long period of time, the residual fluid has been diluted with water and dumped into rivers, according to sources from the international press. After the environmental associations took note, companies found a new solution. Most of the fluid was pulverized into the air, generating a wave of toxic and acid rain.

According to the agreement it has signed with the Romanian state for the Constanţa perimeter, Chevron said it would reinject the substances back underground. However, according to some sources, as a result of the reinjection of the water in the underground, there is the risk of a high number of low-magnitude earthquakes occurring and of the contamination of the water reserves.

Effects similar to the ones described by the specialists as arising from the exploitation of shale gas have happened recently, in three localities of Galaţi: micro-earthquakes, contaminated water and weird noises. The authorities have already denied this hypothesis, saying that the phenomenon has natural causes.

• Wesley Clark, lobbying for the exploitation of shale gas

Wesley K. Clark, former NATO general and current honorary advisor to prime-minister Victor Ponta, repeatedly said that he supports the exploitation of shale gas, which he sees as having an extraordinary future in Romania.

The advisor of Victor Ponta, who is involved in many energy businesses, was recently saying that Romania's chance is in exploiting the mineral resources: "My job here is to support economic development, to support the creation of business opportunities in Romania. We are focusing on segments such as the exploitation of mineral resources, agriculture, hydrocarbons, the health sector and other areas in which we can bring technologies and investments which would create jobs. I think that Romania is a rich country with capable people, but the investments that are needed for economic development do not exist here. We need a strategy for economic growth, and it is on this segment that I am working on".

According to the press, general Clark is also the co-president of Growth Energy, a lobby group in the area of alternative energy, as well as a director on the board of BNK Petroleum Inc, which, through its subsidiary, Indiana Investments, runs major operations for capturing shale gas in Poland.