Chevron Gets Green Light to Proceed on Romanian Shales
Chevron Corp. has obtained environmental permission to drill for shale gas in the three areas in Romania's Vaslui County.
The American based multinational received approvals following Friday's decision by the Technical Analysis Committee from the Vaslui Environment Protection Agency (APM).
Approval by the APM was given after analyzing information provided by Chevron following questions that arose from public debates that took place a week ago in the villages of Bacesti, Pungesti and Gagesti.
The director of APM Vaslui, Madalina Nistor stated “After following up the procedural requirements and analyzing the documents filed by the projects’ owner we reached the conclusion that they fulfill the requirements of the valid legislation with respect to environment protection. The project of the environment agreement for the three locations where will be drilled exploration bores to study the underground geo-physical structure are posted on APM Vaslui website, in order to allow objective observations to be made.”
Based on the environment agreements issued by APM Vaslui and on other documents required for the issuing of zoning permits, Chevron Romania will be able to obtain the building permit from Vaslui County Council for the exploration bores necessary to identify potential shale gas deposits.
In December and January, Vaslui County Council has issued zoning permits for three areas where Chevron wished conduct exploratory drilling for shale gas. Valid for one year, the permits were issued for outside city areas between 35.000 square meters and 73.400 square meters in the perimeter of the villages: Paltinis (Bacesti), Popeni (Gagesti) and Silistea (Pungesti).
Public debates on the issue of the environment report took place at the beginning of July in Bacesti and Pungesti, where the discussions were calm. In Gagesti, some inhabitants voiced objections although they had not read the document.
On July 9th, Environment Minister Rovana Plumb said shale gas exploration posed “no risk” to the environment and to public health.
The Minister commented that “points of view” expressed by the inhabitants of Vaslui in the public debates are “99.9% related to shale gas exploitation and not exploration”.
During the public debate period, Chevron announced that the objective of the company in Romania was to build the first shale gas exploration bore in the fall of this year, in one of the three locations in Vaslui County, based upon obtaining all necessary permits from the state authorities. This timeline points to the possible commencement of drilling in September or October.
Commenting on anti-shale gas protests, Deputy General Manager of Chevron Continental Europe, Doug Uchikura said that Chevron must accept the fact that this type of actions will always exist.
“Opinions must be heard, evidences and scientific proofs must be required. But science does not confirm the accusations related to environment, air and soil contamination”, commented Uchikura.
Silviu Molnar