Greenpark Energy Receives Permission for CBM Drilling
Greenpark Energy Ltd has secured planning permission to sink another seven boreholes into various sites in Canonbie to test for coal bed methane.
The Berwick-upon-Tweed company is seeking valuable natural gas reserves underneath the small village in Dumfries and Galloway in south west Scotland, six miles south of Langholm and two miles north of the Anglo-Scottish border.
The approval will enable Greenpark Energy to continue exploration for the natural methane gas reserves from around 400,000 tons of coal which Canonbie is believed to be sitting on top of.
The company is pumping £40 million into the project.
And if the borehole test results continue to be productive, Greenpark Energy intend to extract the methane underground coal seams for a maximum 28 years via a commercial gas field in the area.
The company first found underground methane gas reserves, which can be used in the generation of electricity or for forward transmission into the gas network, from two temporary exploratory drill sunk 3,600ft below ground sites in 2007.
And they have successively obtained more permission for temporary drill rigs and boreholes on various sites since. Last year Greenpark Energy submitted plans for boreholes at 10 new sites in the Canonbie area plus the formation of a gas compressor station at an 11th site.
Councillor planners have just given the go-ahead for seven of the sites: Brighton Plantation, Glenzier Garden, Greenknowe North, Greenknowe West, Mouldyhills West, Holehouse Plantation, Mouldyhills South.
Under conditions imposed by the council the developers can now sink boreholes and then drill along coal seams at one site at a time.
They initially drill two vertical boreholes 900 metres down, working 24 hours for 60 days, to make way for the testing stage and more drilling to find the yield of gas to see if it is commercially viable.
As well as the temporary drill rig, each site will have nine cabins, ancillary plant and machinery and the formation of access and necessary earthworks.
Planning decisions are still to be made for Mouldyhills, GreenknoweSouth, Graystone Flow Plantation and the Tinnishall Plantation.
The company says it wants to want to have commercial gas produced from the Canonbie sites as soon as possible, depending on all the borehole results.
Source: Dumfries & Galloway Standard