The Effects Of Coal Seam Gas On Our Environment

Will coal seam gas (CSG) damage our environment and plague our economy? Over the last few decades, several countries have started producing more CSG to satisfy their energy demand. However, the society have many concerns related to CSG, which is a type of unconventional oil and gas. These concerns arise because of hydraulic fracking that petrol companies use to extract CSG. The concerns include the effect of CSG on the environment and the economy, which that I will mention in depth. My employer, Golden Plain Gas is planning to explore and produce CSG in a major natural area which raised the concerns of the society. To all those who are worried about the production of CSG, I believe that it will no longer pester our lives because of our advancement

Methane is 23 times stronger as a greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide. The companies can prevent leaks by using tight condensers, pipelines and well heads. It is true that to extract the CSG, the equipment must use diesel and oil, however, there is a solution. Burning natural gas emits almost one third of nitrogen oxides, and almost half of carbon dioxide when we compare it to coal consumption. It also provides more energy than coal, in 2014 the US has produced less carbon dioxide emissions than 20 years before because of the usage of CSG. Therefore, using natural gas to extract CSG will significantly decrease the emissions, while the companies will also use other equipment including vapour recovery units to decrease the leakage. Therefore, companies will treat methane emissions using the suitable safety

Fracking does cause earthquakes sometimes, Blackpool, USA, had registered two earthquakes because of CSG in 2011. However, these two tremors register as 1.7 and 2.3 on the Richter scale and those 2 quantities are low enough they wouldn’t even have a significant impact. Also, fracking has caused 2 earthquakes of magnitude 1.5 and 2.3 for the company Cuadrilla , which are also significantly low to make any noticeable impact. In a report in Journal Scientist, researchers had found that strong earthquakes, thousands of kilometres away, can cause minor earthquakes near fracked wells. Therefore, strong earthquakes can be a cause of the minor tremors near fracking sites. Hence, because of the insignificance of past quakes I believe that CSG is not