Romanians Protest (Again) Over Shale Gas Development
Romanian's opposed to shale gas development took to the streets of Barlad in the north-east of the country on Sunday.
More than 3,500 people were reported to have gathered to protest shale gas drilling plan by Chevron Romania, which intends to start the shale gas drilling process in Barlad by the second half of this year.
"Many protesters took to the streets today not only because of environmental concerns but because they feel they have been betrayed", sociologist Mircea Kivu told AFP. Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who took office in May 2012, had opposed shale gas development when his party was in opposition.
Deputy General Manager of Chevron Continental Europe, Doug Uchikura had previously commented that Chevron must accept the fact that anti-shale gas protests 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.
Vaslui County Council recently approved a fourth permit for placing a exploration rig for shale gas drilling in the administrative area of Puiesti, where Chevron Romania holds three plots in total of 29600 square meters about 1.5 km from nearest village Cetatuia.
The grant follows earlier permissions this past December and January, when the County Council issued zoning permits for three areas where Chevron plans to conduct exploratory shale gas drilling. 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).
Chevron has previously 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.
Dafora, the Romanian based driller will provide onshore drilling services for Chevron’s exploration program in the Barlad area commencing this autumn. This timeline points to the possible commencement of drilling in September or October.
Chevron also plans to explore for shale gas near the Black Sea resort areas of Vama Veche and 2 Mai in three concessions in the area of Vama Veche, Adamclisi and Costinesti but says that it plans on restricting its activities in the three concessions to conducting seismic studies at this time. Nevertheless, locals are anticpating the introduction of hydraulic fracturing at some point in the near future.
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