President Jim Cox opened our meeting on June 5 and wished Derek Bunker a speedy recovery from his recent operation. Bill Underwood then ranted about the 8,000 journalists employed by the BBC but balanced this by reciting a Sat Nav poem by Pam Ayres.
Our guest speaker was Piet Velzeboer, a member of Chipping Camden Probus Club, who spoke about fracking and gas extraction. Piet (pronounced Pete), originally from Maastricht in The Netherlands, is a retired mining engineer who has lived in Chipping Camden for the past 25 years. He worked for Shell all over the world.
Most of us weren’t aware that fracking is not a recent development as the earliest fracking had taken place in 1946/47. The operation involves drilling vertically for over a mile, well below the water table, then horizontally for several miles. Water, sand and chemicals is then injected at high pressure to release the trapped gas. Most of these wells can be operated for 30 or 40 years. Piet gave facts and figures and outlined the issues, which included seismicity, pollution and the environmental impact.
He also spoke about shale gas development which is undertaken throughout the world. He concluded that whilst technically possible in the UK, issues that needed to be resolved included the costs involved, our population density and that land owners may not benefit financially.
Despite the very complex nature of the subject, the 15 minutes of our questions demonstrated our keen interest. Among these were how steel drills could be bent from the vertical to the horizontal, whether fracked and shale gas can be mixed with that of the North Sea and whether the industry hadn’t done enough to convince the public of the value of these developments.
John Cotton thanked Piet on our behalf for a very topical and stimulating issue and commented that, like farming, this industry benefits the community and has to overcome similar problems.
On June 12 our own Cliff Blackborrow will expose his life story followed on June 19 with our summer lunch at the Kings Court Hotel in Alcester.
We meet every Thursday at 10am at the Ecgwins Club in Evesham. Come and join us.
Chris Donough
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