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From Bulgaria

04.09.2014 17:49

Bulgaria’s Environment Minister Denies Fracking Permit for Dobrudzha

U.S. company Park Place Energy Corp. intends to use old drilling sites to bring natural gas and CBM to the surface

AUTHOR: publics.bg

© http://parkplaceenergy.com/

Statements made by Bulgarian political party “The Greens” that the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) had issued a permit allowing for fracking or any kind of unconventional gas are mere speculations, environment minister Svetla Zhekova said in an interview for bTV.

“The Greens” alarmed yesterday about the alleged breach of Bulgaria’s shale gas and fracking ban following the permit issued on August by the ministry to U.S. company Park Place Energy Corp. (OTCBB: PKPL) for Vranino 1-11 gas block in the northeast region of Dobrudzha.

As the region has been subject to more than 200 drillings since the 1960s, the company said a large number of the existing wells are available for re-entry and possible deepening in the search of coal bed methane (CBM).

The permit allows only for exploratory drilling and does not foresee the use of hydraulic fracking, minister Zhekova. If the company finds significant gas deposits it must first submit an environmental impact assessment report for approval by the Ministry of Economy and Energy.

According to the information about Vranino gas project published on Park Place Energy Corp.’s website, the company intends to use “modern environmentally friendly techniques most of which has been developed in last 6-8 years for gas extraction, stating explicitly it will not involve hydraulic fracking.

“Our plan is to drill small radius wells horizontally though coal seams allowing gas to flow to surface through a network of lateral wells naturally”, the PPEC description says.