Demystifying acidisation – from the Weald Action Group

Fracking under the radar? is a new leaflet about acidising from The Weald Action Group (WAG). WAG is a strategic umbrella group supporting the many community groups across the South East who oppose the growing presence of the oil and gas industry in the region. They all share concerns about the techniques this industry proposes to use in as yet untapped, unyielding sections of the geology under our feet.

The leaflet explains the oil or gas extraction method known as ‘acidisation’ or ‘acidising’, which, like fracking, is a ‘stimulation technique’ designed to release oil or gas tightly trapped inside the pores of rocks. While fracking is used to crack open  shale, acidising is used to dissolve passageways through limestone or sandstone. Acidising uses far higher concentrations of chemicals than fracking, and brings similar risks for local people, animals and the environment.

The F word (fracking) has become politically toxic, and in the South East the oil and gas industry fell upon a ruse that enabled them to avoid the F word – in the early stages of their work, at least. In the deep shales of the North of England, it is all too clear that fracking is the objective, and there the oil and gas industry and their supporters have had to bite the bullet, spill the beans, and call a frack a frack!

But in the South East the geology of the Weald Basin offered the industry a cunning ploy. Within the oil-bearing shale of the Weald Basin are layers of oily limestone-rich clay. The industry realised that they could drill into these ‘limestone’ layers, claiming that acidising these snippets would give them a lucrative flow of oil. Fracking? What us? Nohohohoho!

Local groups do not believe them. They believe that the industry’s ultimate aim, having drilled and tested the ‘limestone’, is to frack the thick expanse of shale.

This short leaflet, intended mainly for local people and councillors, explains in simple terms how acidising works at different strengths and pressures, and why this kind of oil exploration, in shale or the ‘limestone’ within it, will give rise to a very large number of wells across the South East.

The Weald Action group will provide more information and materials for awareness-raising, so that local campaigning groups and communities can ensure that other residents in the South East are not hoodwinked by the oil and gas industry, especially on the subjects of acidising and fracking.”

For more information on this advanced well stimulation technique that is being used by oil companies across the Weald and other areas of the UK please see www.frackfreesussex.co.uk/about/#whatisacidising.

To read Kathryn McWhirter's full article on Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Acidising

Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South East has also produced a leaflet on acidisation.

For our 'Fracking Under the Radar' flyers, please contact us through our new website. Click picture for full flyer. Your local group are more than welcome to print.