Apparently Dart Energy’s ‘farewell’ to Australia* contained more spin than usual and bad business choices may be at the bottom of its restructuring, cost cutting and refocusing program.
Herald Scotland 7 April 2013:
The troubled Australian company Dart Energy has applied for planning permission to extract up to 60 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane at Airth, near Falkirk.
It has signed a £300 million deal with SSE for the supply of gas over the next seven years, and has said it hopes to start delivery before the end of this year.
But the Sunday Herald has seen evidence that the calorific value of the gas, which is crucial in determining its price for consumers, is unlikely to be high enough for the National Grid.
Dart has been warned about the problem by independent consultants.
The company has been told that the gas may need to be blended with higher-quality gas on the grid, which, if permitted, would have cost implications.
Alternatively the gas could be enriched by adding propane, a high-risk process that is not included in the current planning applications by the company.
According to experts, enrichment would mean importing nearly 100 tonnes of propane every day, in three large tanker deliveries.
It would also require part of the site to be regulated by the Health and Safety Executive as a "major accident hazard".
Dart declined to directly answer questions about calorific value, though it insisted that its gas would be saleable. Critics, however, claimed that the gas-quality issues could be the "final straw" for the Falkirk development.
Stirling Green councillor Mark Ruskell accused Dart of "fuelling suspicion" about its gas development plans.
"If the gas requires further treatment then it makes a mockery of the current planning applications under consideration by two councils," he said.
"It's clear that a moratorium is required at the very least until the planning system is able to address all the concerns that unconventional gas developments are raising."
Dart's applications to Falkirk and Stirling councils to sink 22 wells at 14 sites have prompted more than 700 objections to date.
The councils have postponed consideration of the applications, which will not now be heard until next month at the earliest……
* Interestingly when Dart withdrew from Australia it only had nineteen employees listed in this country.
No comments:
Post a Comment