Wales extends moratorium to coal gasification

Government reserves final decision-making to underground coal gasification

The Welsh government’s precautionary approach to the development of unconventional oil and gas resources will be extended to underground coal gasification. 

Following pressure from groups such as Frack Free Wales, natural resources minister Carl Sargeant has agreed to extend the moratorium to include underground coal gasification (UCG). This means that an application for development connected to coal gasification will need to be referred to the Welsh ministers if the relevant local planning authority is not proposing to refuse it.

The decision is in response to an application to carry out UCG in the Dee estuary.

UCG is the controlled combustion of coal while it is still underground to convert it into a synthetic gas. The gas is then extracted and processed to provide fuel for power generation or fuel oils. The gas contains methane and hydrogen can also be processed into diesel using the Fischer-Tropsch method. 

Sargeant said: “Any planning application connected to the gasification of coal must be referred to Welsh ministers where local planning authorities are minded to approve them. I have issued it in order to avoid any ambiguity and to ensure our precautionary approach extends to UCG.” 

Keith Ross of Frack Free Wales supports the moratorium announced by Sargeant, telling PE: “Following pressure from our organisation and others, the minister has agreed to extend the moratorium to include UGC. However, this still does not cover test drilling or exploration, and our reservations concerning the legal standing of this moratorium still hold.”

Ross said that the anti-fracking group would continue to press for a full ban on all forms of unconventional gas development in Wales. The group recently launched a campaign to raise awareness of controversial plans to extract gas from under the Dee estuary from London-based energy firm Cluff Natural Resources, which wanted to exploit up to 1.23 billion tonnes of coal using the method on a 6,880ha site, but abandoned the idea to focus on a Scottish project.

Cluff chief executive Algy Cluff said that UCG had the potential to address the country’s future energy needs.