The infrastructure bill passed but only after the Govt included all the amendments demanded by the opposition .
The main issues are :-
- no drilling in areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks
- no drilling in water catchment areas (but they will still allow farming)
- a full 12 months of water monitoring before drilling
- minimum depth of fracing increased from 300m to 1,000m . Unsure whether this is from surface of distance from aquifers . Although CBM doesn't involve frac'ing this trend makes me nervous for CBM .
The Bill will go through several more readings and be refined AND RESTRICTIONS MAY BE RELAXED but as it stands all operators will find some acreage out of bounds .
I'm sure a large number of the applicants in the 14th onshore licensing round will cancel their applications by the end of the week .
IF THE BILL REMAINS AS IT STANDS according to my eyes looking at the map below , Igas lost about 30% of the Gainsborough Trough and 30% of their North West shale . Poor old Europa lost 90% of their Humber basin acreage . Cuadrilla 20-25% of their Bowland acreage .
Take a look at this map , sorry about the source but it's accurate . Shows license areas overlain with areas of natural beauty and water catchment areas where we can no longer drill .
https://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/issues/uk_fracking_map_41274
Today's drop from 27p to 20p (and imho a large part of the drop from 150p to 27p ) is down to UK politicians , not Igas , not Andrew Austin's idiocy , not the price of oil .
Still plenty of opportunity for Dart to make money so don't panic but I'm getting tired of being kicked in the nut sack .
