ESGOS 2014 interviewed Matthew Farrow, Chief Executive at the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) to understand the important role they play in ensuring shale gas exploration in responsibly conducted and their role promoting the abilities of UK environment service and technology companies.

 

How do you feel the shale gas sector is currently developing in the UK?

 

I think it’s a really interesting time, there’s obviously huge interest, we’ve had data today being published on the potential reserves in UK shale formations and everyone has seen the huge impact it’s had in the US, the way their industry has really taken off very quickly and had a big impact on the US gas market. We are at the stage where there is a lot of interest from different companies, including drilling companies, environmental technology companies and service providers, and

everyone is trying to work out just how quickly development might take off and what the scale of the industry might be.

 

What do you think the benefits are of having a UK shale gas industry?

 

I think there are two benefits and this is all on the basis that it’ll be a tightly regulated industry, which I think it needs to be for environmental impacts around the sites, and that is of particular interest to us here at The EIC.

 

Assuming it is a best practice industry and a well regulated industry, if we are going to be using gas as a transition fuel towards a low carbon future it should help reduce UK emissions in the short to medium term.

 

The benefit of having the industry here in the UK is that with the North Sea running down we are increasingly dependent for our gas supplies on gas imports, and if it is possible to safely extract UK gas from UK shale formations that can be a way to displace gas imports. This would be good for energy security purposes, and means the jobs and the spending is here in the UK.

 

What is the main aim of The EIC, regarding the shale gas industry?

 

We have got a particular interest in shale gas issues, our members are environmental service and technology companies, which includes a mixture of environmental consultants, who are experts in doing environmental impact assessments and advising on environmental best practice and environmental technology companies in a range of fields, including waste water treatment providers and waste management companies.

 

What we have increasingly become aware of in the last year or so is that a lot of our members will be involved in working on shale gas issues, either for the drilling companies themselves or from other developers in fracking areas or for local authorities, both exploring and assessing the impact of fracking sites on the environment.

 

In terms of providing some of the waste water treatment technology, drilling cuttings or treatment technology, the drilling companies themselves will need to make sure that their operations are well done, environmentally.

 

We are interested in working with drilling companies and other stakeholders to make sure that the UK shale gas industry is run to a very high environmental standard, and I think that’s really important.

 

It’s important for the industry itself but also important for local communities and politicians to know that shale gas in the UK is run to a high environmental standard, and it’s our members who will be helping to make that happen.

 

What does The EIC do in order to achieve this aim?

 

We are interested in promoting a better understanding of what ‘best practice’ looks like in environmental terms for UK shale gas exploration, from that point of view we are keen to get a good debate and dialogue going, so the conference is a key part of that.

 

We also work closely with the Environment Agency, who are the main regulators for the sites that come forward.

 

Between the Environment Agency as regulators, our members as experts and ourselves as a trade body, we talk in detail to discuss issues around how the regulations might be applied and whether the current regulations are fit for purpose or need any development to take account of any technical issues around the drilling sites that may arise.

 

We also brief our members on the latest developments in terms of the scale the shale gas exploration might develop at and what sort of outcomes there might be.

Therefore, we do a range of activities which are mostly based on identifying and promoting good practice in the environmental management of the sites.

 

How do The EIC represent Environmental service technology companies?

 

We are a trade body for the sector and we have a wide range of companies in our membership covering many different sectors, including, environmental consultants and waste and waste water management companies. We also have other companies in our membership who provide technology on pollution control and environmental laboratories who monitor and test soil samples.

 

We do two or three different things for our members, we lob it on their behalf, if they think there are regulations or legislation that needs to be strengthened or needs to be improved or made more pragmatic then we work with parliament and with government officials to try and get that right.

 

We also promote our members services internationally, for example we work with colleagues in China to make sure that our members can get access to the Chinese environmental market where there are huge issues around air pollution and contaminated land where EIC members have a big role to play.

 

We help our members to understand how UK regulations might change over time which helps them understand their market better and the advice they provide to their clients.

 

We run a series of ‘best practice’ events and seminars, again promoting the work our members do and trying to make sure that environmental standards in the UK are ‘best practice’.

 

How is The EIC representing its members towards the shale gas industry?

 

A big thing for us is working closely with the Environment Agency as the regulators of shale gas sites. We have a good working relationship with the Agency, so we get their experts together with our members to exchange views on environmental issues in terms of shale gas exploration and drilling and discuss how those environmental issues ought to be tackled.

 

We are also developing good links with the drilling companies and the UK Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG), again just to make sure that the drilling companies are well aware of the environmental expertise in our membership and can draw on that as they need to.

 

Why are conferences and debates so important to the shale gas industry?

 

I think conferences and debates are important because it is a new industry in UK terms, obviously in the US it’s been around a few years, but the way it’s developing in the UK, it is fairly new.

 

I also think it is important because there is a lot of interest from the media, from politicians and from different types of NGO’s, but there is a lot of miss-information flying around and different reports coming our left right and center. Some of which are very much pro-the future of shale in the UK, and some much more negative.

 

I think having conferences and debates is a good way to try and get issues out in the open in order to debate them in an open way and get the facts discussed and hear different points of view, and I think particularly with a new industry like this, it is even more important than it always is to have conferences and debates.