Denmark’s first taste of fracking halted by ministry

Energy Ministry halts fracking after company uses unauthorised chemicals at northern Jutland site

The Energy Ministry has brought a halt to exploratory drilling for shale gas near Vendsyssel in north Jutland just a day and a half after it started on Monday morning.

Total – the French company in charge of the drilling, which uses the controversial process known as fracking – has apparently used a chemical not authorised in environmental guidelines set out for the procedure by Frederikshavn Municipality.

“This makes me really angry,” Anders Brandt Sørensen, the head of the municipality’s planning and environment committee, told DR Nordjylland. “We will not tolerate this kind of violation of our environmental regulations.”

A closer look
Sørensen has already advised inspectors from his office to keep an even closer eye on the fracking.

“When we feel our confidence has been so severely tested, we simply need to be even more vigilant about keeping an eye on Total,” he said.

READ MORE: Fracking to become a reality as French firm is given green light for shale gas drilling

The Energy Ministry ordered Total to stop drilling immediately, and work on the test wells may not resume until the unauthorised chemical used by the company (referred to by the Danish media as ‘Null Foam’) has been tested.

“Whether or not Null Foam proves to be harmful to the environment, we will maintain even tighter controls should drilling resume,” said Sørensen.

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