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Pictou County coal bed methane project
East Coast Energy Vice President and Project Geologist Arden Thompson has previously spoken freely to the New Glasgow News, but says that all media questions are referred to CEO Julie Cohen. Over the course of more than a month, Cohen has not answered the many messages left for her.
In her absence, and with a tip to Michael Moore's Roger and Me, the Halifax Media Coop asks its questions anyway.
Both East Coast Energy and the Liberal government go to considerable lengths to emphasise that no hydraulic fracturing is allowed in this coal bed methane pilot project. What they do not say is that at the pilot project stage of test wells, hydraulic fracturing does not come into play. Unlike shale gas extraction, coal bed methane extraction does not begin with hydraulic fracturing.
But like shale gas extraction, coal bed methane extraction is only economical with developments of many wells in a small area. At ground level a typical producing coal bed methane field looks the same as a typical shale gas development.
And when in that full scale production, many of the wells must be hydraulically fractured to become or to remain productive. In other words, hydraulic fracturing is both necessary and routine for full scale extraction of the gas from coal beds. |Read more|