Just before Christmas, the Salford Star did an in-depth interview with John Blaymires, the Chief Operating Officer for IGas, the company which is causing all sorts of controversy on Barton Moss by aiming to start exploratory drilling for coal bed methane and the potential of shale gas.
Despite widely publicised Government promises that "Shale is important for our country, it will bring 74,000 jobs, £3billion investment, give us cheaper energy for the future and increase our energy security", statements by the IGas Chief Operating Officer seem to say otherwise…
CHEAPER ENERGY
David Cameron said that fracking would "give us cheaper energy for the future". Over to you, John Blaymires…
"It's not going to be cheaper but it may mean it's not going to be more expensive…Will prices come down initially? No they won't."
Enough said. Blaymires did add, however, that big companies will get cheaper gas by not having to import it from other countries. In other words, big business benefits, working people don't. We just live with the risks…
JOBS
How many times have Salford people heard about the fantastic amount of jobs that will be created when this that or the other is done? The Lowry would create jobs. MediaCityUK would create jobs. Salford City Stadium would create jobs. Port Salford will create jobs. Chapel Street will create jobs…and the most ludicrous, that a £13million fountain in Greengate would create jobs…
Salford people have heard it all – and we still have unemployment way above the local and national average. Salford people have a right to be sceptical when the latest snake oil salesman rolls into town promising, literally, the earth.
So, John Blaymires, how many local people are employed on the exploratory drilling site?
"At the exploratory phase the number of direct jobs will be limited because it's a temporary thing. The initial security came from around the area…we've used local contractors to construct the site…"
How local?
"In the North West…Let's fast forward, let's get into the development stage. In terms of the site itself the numbers employed once it's in production will be fairly small, it can be remotely operated.
"Where the big benefits start to come is in the broader sense of jobs locally, directly and indirectly, through security, the ongoing monitoring, future site construction… There are industries around the area that are highly reliant on things like gas. Big employers. And that's where, in all likelihood, the gas would be sold to help support those jobs and those industries…"
But in terms of direct jobs, very few – you've just said it…
"On a single site, post the drilling and construction phase, there will be very few… er, when the rig crews are here they will stay in the local hotels…"
There aren't any hotels in Irlam…
"Well, you've got all that sort of stuff… if you like, there's one or two jobs that are on one single site, then there's all the support things that go in there, whether it's IT, telecommunications, removal of waste materials, etc etc, so you sort of have a core but around that there are other jobs that come out of it."
They said that with Media City and it never happened...
"If you think about Media City, you must have office cleaners…"
That was the problem with it, that the jobs created were cleaners and security…It's like Port Salford - they're saying there will be thousands of jobs but there won't. We've seen the equation they use…
"What this potentially offers, and let's stick to the shale gas story, if that takes off, the North West has got tremendous implications in terms of creating jobs and skilled jobs. What we're talking about is like a new North Sea, so if you think about what happened with Aberdeen, it's global in terms of skilled jobs
"This area has an industrial heritage, it's got skills. If we can do this right then we can establish literally the shale centre for Europe in this region. This means there's going to be colleges of education providing training, apprenticeships, we need to build a whole supply chain. We need rigs, and someone has to build those rigs…"
You said earlier there would be only one rig…
"On that site we will need a rig that's drilling ten wells, that needs all the casing the cement, the mud…there's enormous knock on benefits. To put that into perspective, independently [hmmmm - ed], the Institute of Directors did an analysis and they said that 74,000 jobs would be created if shale was to take off here in the North West, in terms of direct jobs."
We've seen a million surveys that Peel Holdings etc have done on jobs and none of it has ever come true…
"There is evidence - if you look across at the States they've created millions of jobs…"
But they've got more rigs…
"They have, they're running 1864 rigs to be precise. We're not going to have that many but it all has to be built and developed and that supply chain will bring jobs."
During this interview, John Blaymires said there would be 74,000 jobs in the North West, yet David Cameron said yesterday there would be 74,000 jobs for the whole country. Something's not right. And even these figures for the North West or nationally will be based on some mad equation – like Media City and Port Salford - thinking up a figure for full production, which will never happen, and adding in all sorts of loosely connected jobs that fatten up the figures.
In terms of fracking, companies fly in the specialised crews and fly them back out again. To repeat, "the numbers employed once it's in production will be fairly small, it can be remotely operated."
To follow: IGas on the ethics and practice of fracking; will the company debate with the protesters? And what the hell is this IGas `community liaison committee' of local people?
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