Fears that Fife is being used as a guinea pig for controversial plans to ignite subsea coal seams as a way to keep Britain’s lights on have been raised by Kirkcaldy SNP MSP David Torrance.
He has written a letter to Deputy First Minister John Swinney to highlight concerns within his constituency regarding proposals for the implementation of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) and to call for a Public Health Impact Study.
Oil baron Algy Cluff hopes to revolutionise the UK’s energy provision by tapping into coal reserves beneath the seabed using UCG.
The technique involves drilling a 12-inch vertical borehole into a coal seam below the seabed, flushing it with oxygen and igniting it with a burner.
However, it is largely untested and has never been attempted offshore.
Mr Cluff’s firm, Cluff Natural Resources, has been granted licences for eight sites around Britain but said its first project would probably be in the Firth of Forth. A planning application for a site at Kincardine is likely by the end of the year.
Mr Torrance said: “I am deeply concerned by the impact.”
Andrew Nunn, chief operating officer of Cluff Natural Resources, said: “Between 1999 and 2007, the DTI carried out an intense study of UCG and its application in the UK.
“All the evidence available for UCG globally was evaluated and the study came to the conclusion that careful site selection, process control and post-gasification site management would minimise the risks of adverse environmental effects.
“Cluff Natural Resources fully agrees with Mr Torrance that care must be taken and is planning to progress its project in a cautious and staged manner in order to build confidence among regulators and the public.
“A full environmental impact assessment is currently being undertaken to support a planning application for the construction and operation of a small-scale production test.
“This test will have a defined life of a few hundred days and will be followed by its decommissioning and a validation of environmental performance and commercial potential.
“Any further operations would require a further environmental impact assessment and separate planning permission.”
Picture by George McLuskie