Energy company Total has announced a major gas discovery off Shetland. Initial tests at a site on the Glendronach prospect indicated there could be about one trillion cubic feet of gas which could be extracted. Total’s Arnaud Breuillac said the discovery could be commercialised by using the current Laggan-Tormore infrastructure. Total has a 60% stake in the site. Energy company SSE and chemicals firm Ineos each have a 20% interest. Friends of the Earth Scotland director Dr Richard Dixon said: “This exploitation of this new gas discovery off the coast of Shetland is incompatible with a country and a world that takes climate action seriously. This gas should stay where is it.”
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Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Exploitation of this new gas discovery off the coast of Shetland is incompatible with a country and a world that takes climate action seriously. “The world cannot afford to burn even a fraction of the fossil fuels we already know about. Fossil fuel firms should not be searching for and exploiting new reserves. This summer of extreme weather has shown we are long past the time for business as usual. This gas should stay where is it. On the same day the Scottish Government is urged by its own climate advisers to do more to cut emissions, it needs to end further oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.” Gina Hanrahan, acting head of policy at WWF Scotland, said: “We can’t limit global warming with one hand tied behind our backs. “To bring down our emissions globally we simply can’t burn most of our existing fossil fuel reserves, let alone new discoveries like this Shetland field. The smart money should be going into clean energy, not risking stranded assets in the North Sea.”
Scotsman 24th Sept 2018 read more »
Herald 24th Sept 2018 read more »
If receiving government energy subsidies were an addiction, then Drax would be hooked. To its credit, the operator of Britain’s biggest power station is hardly in denial. It has been working on self-help measures that it hopes will stand it in good stead when access to its fix is unceremoniously removed in less than a decade’s time. Whether shareholders are ready to believe that it can make a success of going clean is another matter. Drax’s main asset is its eponymous power station near Selby in North Yorkshire, which is fired by a mixture of coal and biomass. It also makes compressed wood pellets in several locations in the United States that are transported back to Britain to burn at the power station to help to generate electricity. It also owns Haven Power, a supplier of electricity to large businesses, and Opus Energy, which supplies electricity and gas to small companies.
Times 25th Sept 2018 read more »
Drax, the UK power company, confirmed on Monday it was in early-stage talks to buy a number of Scottish Power assets as it moves to diversify away from coal-burning power generation. The company said in a statement it was in discussions with Spain’s Iberdrola, Scottish Power’s parent company, to potentially buy a UK portfolio of pumped storage, renewable hydro and gas-fired generation assets. The deal is slated to include 1,940MW of combined cycle gas turbines and 566MW of hydro assets, according to analyst estimates. The move comes as Drax, which owns the UK’s largest power plant in North Yorkshire, has sought to move away from coal ahead of the national deadline of 2025 to phase out the most carbon-intensive form of power generation.
FT 24th Sept 2018 read more »
Business Green 24th Sept 2018 read more »