Scotland bans underground coal gasification
Scotland has banned the technique of underground coal gasification (UCG), which extracts methane by burning coal beds beneath the earth, due to its alleged environmental risks. Scottish Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse is asking for six licences to locate test sites for UGC in Scotland to be revoked. Wheelhouse claimed that the emerging industry had suffered from “loss of containment issues” in other countries, before adding that the ban could be revoked if the technique was subsequently found to be safe. Campaigners hope the move may prompt UK ministers to consider similar bans in England.

Scottish ministers have banned the use of a technique to extract methane by burning underground coal beds, after expert advice said it posed too many risks to the climate and environment.



Paul Wheelhouse, the Scottish environment minister, said he was asking ministers in London to revoke six licences to find test sites for the technique, known as underground coal gasification (UGC), in central and south-west Scotland.

He said an expert report from Prof Campbell Gemmell, former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, had found it was unproven, under-regulated and too risky to be approved.

Wheelhouse said the infant industry had a history of pollution accidents and “loss of containment issues” at test sites in other countries, but added that the ban could be lifted if it proved safe in future.

To the delight of environment campaigners, Wheelhouse said: “It is the Scottish government’s view that UGC poses numerous and serious environmental risks and, on that basis, the Scottish government cannot support this technology. Accordingly, UCG will have no place in Scotland’s energy mix at this time.”

Environmentalists believe the Scottish ban will add pressure on UK ministers to ban or postpone possible UCG projects in England, despite giving the go-ahead on Thursday to the UK’s biggest fracking site yet, on the Fylde in Lancashire.

Scottish ministers are still wrestling with their policy on fracking, repeatedly delaying a final decision in the face of strong industry pressure to support it after divisions emerged within the cabinet over its potential value to Scotland’s ailing economy and energy industries.

Scotland has had a moratorium on commercial fracking and coalbed methane drilling since January 2015, and Wheelhouse said on Thursday he would publish a set of scientific papers on fracking and open up a public consultation later this autumn.

Scotland had been at the forefront of attempts in the UK by several energy companies and some academics to develop UCG because of its extensive network of rich coal seams under land and the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh and Solway Firth north of Carlisle.

The technique involves chemically igniting coal seams, under controlled conditions, and then capturing the released methane-rich gases at ground level before processing the gases. Those could feed chemicals plants and power stations, they said, adding to the UK’s domestic energy mix.

Developers promised that excess carbon dioxide would be buried offshore in carbon capture and storage sites; some claimed the technology promised a bonanza for the unconventional gas industry, with sites eventually being exploited far offshore in the Atlantic or in the North Sea. The European commission has invested tens of millions of euros in UCG research projects.



Unlike fracking, UGC technology is still untested, very costly and years away from approval by UK regulators, making the Scottish government’s decision to ban it relatively easy. One of the two developers, Five Quarter, recently went into receivership.

There are no carbon capture and storage sites yet in operation in the UK, and no evidence that carbon capture would be cost effective, undermining the business case for UGC.

Environmental campaigners were jubilant following Wheelhouse’s announcement. Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) pointed to a case in Queensland, Australia, where developers of one test site, Linc Energy, are now being prosecuted after contamination and leaks into the environment.

Mary Church, head of campaigns with FoES, said: “This is a victory for people power. Setting coal seams alight under two of our major firths was always a reckless idea.



“The history of UCG is littered with contamination incidents, ground subsidence and industrial accidents. [We] look forward to the Scottish government acting swiftly to ban shale gas fracking and coalbed methane drilling once it has finished its review.”

Andrew Nunn, the chief operating officer for the most active UCG developer, Cluff Natural Resources, which has three development licences in Scotland, said the country would now miss out. He said regulations to control the industry could easily have been introduced.

“It is obviously disappointing that the Scottish government has decided not to trust its own regulators and world-class engineering and scientific resource base to ensure that a UCG industry could be developed under the rigorous scrutiny of a fit for purpose regulatory regime,” he said.

“We have no doubt that UCG will be developed elsewhere in the world and the opportunity for Scotland to benefit from first mover advantage will have been lost.”