Energy Firms Paid to Laud Shale Gas in Bulgaria, Eco-Activist Claims

Environment | April 4, 2012, Wednesday // 19:08|  views

Three PR agencies in Bulgaria have received enormous amounts of money in order to explain to the public how nice shale gas is, Mariana Hristova, an environmentalist, has alleged.

Speaking on BNR Wednesday, Hristova declared the money came from the companies bidding for shale gas exploration and extraction in Bulgaria but did not specify the names of the energy firms and which PR companies got paid to praise shale gas.

Hristova, a representative of the Civic Initiative for Banning Shale Gas Exploration and Extraction in Buglaria, spoke about Wednesday's formation of a special committee in the Bulgarian Parliament to study the effects of hydrofracking.

The new parliamentary committee is created about a year after the GERB Cabinet granted a EUR 30 M shale gas exploration concession to Chevron – which spurred the mass protests out of concerns that the shale gas hyrdofracking technology can pollute underground water in all of Northeastern Bulgaria.

She did express misgivings about the work of the new parliamentary committee citing insufficient expertise, among other things.

"Unfortunately, we [Bulgaria] don't have an expert with global view. None of the [Bulgarian] experts has ever been on a shale gas drilling site. This is not about looking at this process one-sidedly. It must be reviews not only by geologists, but also by drilling engineers, hydrologists, ecologists, biologists, medical doctors, specialists on air pollution. The issue is that no single person but many people must review the process, and it really depends on who is giving an expert opinion," Hristova explained.

Regarding the claims that there is almost no difference between the extraction of shale gas and conventional natural gas, she argued that the key work is "almost".

"That is not true – there is a difference. And, unfortunately, the damage that both exploration and extraction can do are the same. The risks from [shale gas] exploration and extraction are totally the same," she said, urging a civic control over the work of the new committee.

According to geology professor Kristalina Stoykova, a researcher from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, however, who also spoke on BNR, the shale gas topic has been politicized in Bulgaria.

She did argue that the exploration drilling for shale gas and conventional natural gas are almost the same.

"For me, and all other experts, the key question is how much the risk can be controlled by the people, and whether we can afford that. This is what the committee needs to find out," she stated.

In her words, the exploration for shale gas needs to go through a laboratory phase first before it can include any drilling. She insisted that an environmental impact assessment would be sufficient to determine any risks whenever, eventually, there are sites that are chosen for drilling.

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Tags: Mariana Hristova, shale gas, natural gas, Kristalina Stoykova, geologists, drilling, Chevron, environmentalist, environmentalists

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