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Wednesday 16 October 2013

KCC Conflict of Fracking Interest

On the day of a major public meeting in Dover to discuss applications for exploratory drilling for shale and coal bed methane gas at Guston, Tilmanstone and Shepherdswell (1), which are likely to lead  to full-blown fracking in East Kent, the Green Party  has revealed  that the planning authority which will be deciding these applications in December - Kent County Council -  has multi-million-pound investments in several fracking companies.

Following a Freedom of Information request the Kent Green Party has discovered that KCC holds £153 million of shares in 8 companies actively or wholly involved in extracting shale oil and gas (2). 

Thanet Green Party Councillor, Ian Driver, said  "We are calling for the decision making on fracking applications to be taken out of the hands of Kent County Council. They have a huge conflict of interest which may explain some of the reason that they are so intent on destroying our environment. They cannot be trusted to make unbiased decisions and therefore they should be stripped of this power. Until fracking is banned in this country, we want decisions on fracking to be made directly by local people.

"Kent County Council's huge investments in these eight companies that are exploiting and polluting the environment demonstrates how unfit the Conservative County Councillors are to lead Kent.

"Fracking has no place in an ecologically sustainable world. Instead, energy companies should be putting their money into renewable resources - resources that won't run out and that don't pollute."

The Green Party remains the only party opposed to fracking.

 FURTHER INFORMATION:  Ian Driver, Tel: 07866 588766

Promoted by Stuart Jeffery for Kent Green Party, 82 Buckland Road, Maidstone ME16 0SD

KENT GREEN NEWS, free ezine, is available by subscription at www.kentgreenparty.org

Notes


1. The meeting in Dover has been called by East Kent Against Fracking and is supported buy the Kent Green Party. The meeting takes place at
Wednesday, 16th October 7.30pm-9.30pmConnaught Hall, Dover Town Hall, Maison Dieu House, Biggin St, DOVER   CT16 1DL see http://eastkentagainstfracking.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/fracking-in-garden-of-england-meeting.html
2. Kent County Council’s fracking investments include

- £7m invested in EOG which proudly declares that: "EOG outproduces other horizontal shale oil producers by 2:1" http://www.eogresources.com/investors/annreport.html
-£2. 9m invested in the Wood Group: "Wood Group's activities to support oil & gas production from shale fields in the US are growing, with annualized revenue totaling approximately $500 million"
http://www.woodgroup.com/news-events/news-releases/pages/1851669.aspx
- £16m in BHP Billiton: "Our production volumes increased 40 percent over the prior year driven by the acquisition, successful integration and continued development of our Onshore US shale assets."
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/home/businesses/petroleum_potash/Documents/20120101_PetroleumPotash_Petroleum_AnnualReview2012.pdf
- £12m invested in Centrica, a company that has a 25% stake in the Bowland Shale in Lancashire: "This transaction presents an attractive opportunity for Centrica to explore the potential and commercial viability of natural gas from shale in the UK" http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=29&newsid=2778
-. £10m invested in Total: "Unconventional gas is a major strategic challenge for the future of the natural gas industry." http://total.com/en/energies-expertise/oil-gas/exploration-production/strategic-sectors/unconventional-gas/shale-gas-1/international-deployment/europe
-  £15m invested in BP AMOCO: "Natural gas, including gas from unconventional reservoirs, has an increasingly important role in meeting the world’s growing energy needs." http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/investors/6423_BP_Unconventional_Gas.pdf
-  £27m in ROYAL DUTCH SHELL: "Abundant global supplies of natural gas and oil lie locked tightly in rock formations such as tight sandstone and shale. Shell is using advanced, proven technologies – including hydraulic fracturing – and follows global operating principles to unlock these resources safely and responsibly." http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/natural-gas/gas/shell-operating-principles.html
-  £31m in BG Group: "BG Group explores for and produces unconventional gas in two regions: coal seam gas in Australia; and shale gas in the USA." http://www.bg-group-ara.com/pdf/bg-ar-2012-full-report.pdf

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