Keele University
Applied & Environmental Geophysics
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Managing the risks of fraccing
Professor Peter Styles, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, gave the inaugural UCD Earth Institute Public Seminar at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin on 'Managing the Risks of Fraccing for Shale Gas extraction'. There was a full house of legislators, academics and the public as Ireland, which lies at the end of all European supply pipelines, is particularly vulnerable to global gas market fluctuations.
It was then to Brussels for the launch of Shale Gas Europe, a European Resource Centre for Shale Gas, Tight Gas and Coalbed Methane, with a select group of European Parliament members and officials, European Commission officials and energy attachés from Member State Permanent Representations to the EU, as he is a member of their Expert Advisory Panel.
This was followed by two keynote addresses on induced seismicity associated with Shale Gas Hydrofracturing and Mitigation of induced seismicity hazard, at a European Commission expert workshop on Geological risks & risk management in the context of unconventional hydrocarbons at DG Environment of the European Commission in Auderghem, Brussels.
The Chancellor's Autumn statement brought further interest in Shale Gas as an energy source in the UK and requests for interviews from the Financial Times, Independent and Daily Mail.
His week was rounded off by a 7.3 earthquake offshore northern Japan and the small one metre tsunami which ensued, and led to a CNBC interview on the tectonics and tsunami hazard of that part of Japan.
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