- The environmental impact study carried out by the Directorate General of Biodiversity and Environmental Quality of Spain has been favorable to gas extraction in the Armentia-2 well, as according to the report the probe will not produce adverse effects on the environment. Thus, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior has given the green light to gas extraction in the wells of Vitoria-Gasteiz.
The announcement of the environmental impact study and the implementation report of the "Armentia-2 survey" were already published in the Official State Gazette for 2018, at the request of the company Sociedad de Hidrocarbos de Euskadi, S.A. (Shesa). Previously, Berriztuk and Fracking Ez Araba had lodged an appeal in the courts that had led them to the resolution.
The opposition movement to the Armentia-2 project has also filed a popular allegation against the project, which has already signed over 2,000 signatures in more than two weeks.
Faced with the gas extraction in Armentia-2, Berriz and Fracking Ez Araba highlighted numerous difficulties:
- Chemical products: would not be used for hydraulic fracturing, but would be used in drilling sludge. More than 4 million litres of salt, barite, polymers, colmaters, detergents and biocides would be used, which would end up underground, with the serious risk of reaching aquifers.
- Investing in fossil fuels: both groups argue that "in the current context of climate change and depletion of fossil resources, government investments should be directed towards a real energy transition based on renewable energies".
- Methane leakage: according to all published studies "when gas is extracted, methane leakage occurs", which affects climate change, "25 times more than CO2", according to the two groups.
- Environmental protection: According to the General Urban Management Plan of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the land on which the Armentia-2 well is to be excavated is qualified as "non-urbanizable forest value land", being expressly prohibited the use associated with extractive activities. In addition, plot in Montes de Vitoria
It is also within the scope of the Natural Park project. In the City Hall, all opposition groups were against this project.
- Economic waste: According to them, "in the golden age of the fracking, much of the permits requested in the Spanish state have been destroyed or the promoters have withdrawn". Reason: "Fracking is not cost-effective if minimum environmental protection requirements are met." Is conventional extraction an alternative? "It has smaller production and they continue to play and lose our money," he added. They have therefore called for "the disappearance of Shesa and the investment of all the money in a real energy transition", he added.