Greenpeace Protests Chevron Fracking In Romania
By Countercurrents
08 July, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Greepeace activists protesting against shale gas exploration in Romania
Greenpeace activists have staged a protest outside a controversial Chevron shale gas exploration site in Romania . They insisted the use of fracking technologies could harm the environment there.
Media reports including reports by Reuters, AP and E&T * , the Engineering and Technology magazine of The Institution of Engineering and Technology said:
Dozens of Greenpeace campaigners coming from Romania , Hungary , Austria , the Czech Republic , Poland , Slovakia and Germany chained themselves to the gates of a shale gas exploration well in Pungesti in eastern Romania on July 7, 2014.
Wearing bright yellow jackets, the activists blocked access to the road and chained themselves to the tall gates, which have barbed wire on top.
They waved banners that said "Pungesti-anti-Chevron quarantine area" and "Stop fracking".
Fracking - the process which helps retrieve gas trapped in tight-layered underground rock formations by injecting high-pressure water, sand and chemicals at high pressure - is not without environmental hazards, critics say.
They fear it can pollute ground water in the process and trigger small earthquakes.
US energy giant Chevron has been the first company to begin exploring for shale gas in EU member state Romania and has said it aims to put up more wells in the area while stating it will not yet use fracking under its five-year exploration program.
The Greenpeace activists urged the government to ban fracking.
Romania could potentially hold 51 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, which would cover domestic demand for more than a century, the US Energy Information Administration estimates.
Chevron began work on the exploration well in Pungesti in December after postponing operations several times because of protests from hundreds of local residents.
Protesters say they are concerned Chevron will use fracking or hydraulic fracturing.
Several police officers were sent to the site but have not yet taken steps to remove the activists.
Chevron also has the rights to explore three other Romanian licence blocks, near the Black Sea .
* http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2014/jul/romania-greenpeace-fracking-protest.cfm
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