Mexican Green Group Shuns Fracking
(Updates with comments from Juan Carlos Zepeda, CEO of Mexico's National Hydrocarbon Commission, at CERA Week in Houston on March 5.)
A Mexican anti-fracking group has launched a petition opposing plans annnounced March 1 by the country’s energy regulator to allow fracking in blocks that will be made available at auction later this year.
The Mexican Alliance Against Fracking (MAAF) issued a release soon after Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin Coldwell announced fracking will be allowed in the gas-prospective Burgos Basin, where blocks will be offered this July. The July rights will be for conventional reservoirs only; unconventional horizons will be offered at a second auction on September 5, the government said March 2.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of CERA Week in Houston on March 5, National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH) CEO Juan Carlos Zepeda said future work on blocks awarded at the September auction will be approached with caution by his agency and that those living near areas open to fracking will need to be convinced of the benefits.
“We need to work closely with local communities to ensure they understand the benefits (of fracking),” he said. State-owned Pemex has fracked about 40 wells over the years, both oil and gas, but has had little success with the technology, Zepeda added.
MAAF, a coalition of environmental and community action groups, said it would strongly oppose the government’s plans to extend permission to deploy fracking beyond the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Veracruz, Puebla and Tamaulipas, states that are straddled by the Tampico-Misantla reservoir, which holds huge unconventional oil and gas reserves.
The government also announced it plans to allow fracking to take place in the states of San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo and Oaxaca. In total, fracking would be allowed in a geographical area covering about half of Mexico’s land mass and would help unlock at least a portion of a natural gas resource estimated at some 545 trillion ft3.
The government said it wants to allow unconventional extraction both on land and in the Gulf of Mexico, where majors such as Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and others have won exploration blocks.
Canadian-based juniors Renaissance Oil and International Frontier Resources have both won blocks in the Tampico-Misantla, along with juniors and intermediates from around the world.
In its statement, the government said it wants to encourage more domestic natural gas production, a stance the MAAF characterised as “inconsistent” in light of the government's push to import even more natural gas from the US.
The group said it opposes the promotion of natural gas, wherever it comes from.
“(B)ased on scientific evidence (the switch to) renewable energy is urgent and indispensable to curb global warming,” it said. “The exploration of natural gas delays this transition and deepens (the commitment to) fossil fuels.”
It went on to argue that methane, “the main component in natural gas, has a global warming potential 86 times greater than carbon dioxide and its escape into the atmosphere in the process of fracking has been well documented”.
The group argues that the country’s regulatory regime is too weak, relying on data from producers.
“Definitely, these guidelines (regulatory rules) do not represent a solution to address the dangers of fracking.”
The group said the “only way” to avoid the “dangers” of fracking is to outlaw it, as has been done in France, Ireland, Bulgaria, Germany and Scotland, as well as in New York and Maryland.
The MAAF said it is calling on CNH and the energy ministry (Sener) “to not continue with their…plans for the exploitation of gas and unconventional oil (using) fracking and carry out the necessary actions to move towards a sustainable energy model, respectful (of) the environment and guaranteeing human rights”.
In Houston, Zepeda would not comment specifically on MAAF's statements.