Gas ... the oil companies just burn it off. The Age of Stupid 2009 starring Pete Postlethwaite & Jehangir Wadia & Layefa Malin & Al Duvernay & Fernand Pareau & Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud & Piers Guy & Mark Lynas & Mohamed Nasheed & David King & George Monbiot & Richard Heinberg & Ed Miliband et al, director Franny Armstrong
Safer lighting: In 1792 a Scotsman called Murdoch said he’d invented it: you heat coal up, he said, and you set fire to the vapours the coal gives off and you get this ... Murdoch worked for James Watt. James Burke, Connections s1e7: The Long Chain, BBC 1978
Windsor recognised that if you’re going to do it, do it big ... Within six years the country’s major cities had gas-lit streets. ibid.
The thing about mixing oxygen and acetylene is the flame: it burns at about four thousand degrees centigrade, one thousand degrees hotter than any other gas will give you. (Civilisation & Gas) James Burke, Connections s3e3: Drop the Apple, BBC 1997
Shattering underground rock to get natural gas has opened up a hidden treasure trove. It’s also ignited a major controversy. Fracking: Shattered Ground, PBS 2015
750 chemical compounds are used in fracking fluids including carcinogens and air pollutants. ibid.
Another problem: earthquakes. ibid.
Most experts agree that impacts on water raise the greatest environmental concern from shale gas development. Council of Canadian Academies Report of 16 Canadian and American Scientists, Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction in Canada, May 2014
Our country will have drilled and fracked our way down a blind alley (with huge associated economic and environmental costs) for a short-lived energy boom. David Hughes, former Scientist Geological Survey of Canada
Eighty per cent of our gas transits through Ukraine, which was the motive behind our Ukrainian colleagues’ decision to start to blackmail us ... But we are ready to go to the Swedish court in the event of Ukraine’s unsanctioned use of gas. Alexander Medvedev
Other mobsters now make their living brokering major gas and oil deals between Russia, its neighbours and Western Europe, recording handsome profits for their clients and themselves. Misha Glenny, McMafia
In its first years of business, ETG (Eural Trans Gas) went from being a $12,000 business to recording $2 billion turnover, posting pre-tax profits of $180 million. ibid.
Gazprom is a monster. With an annual turnover of $30 billion ... Any gas coming out of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan that seeks a home of the Western European markets must travel through Gazprom’s pipelines ... Why, then, would Gazprom pay another firm, with which it had no ostensible connection, to transport gas that Gazprom owns through Gazprom’s pipelines? ... Unless, perhaps, those strangers were friends in disguise. ibid.
Putin let it be known that he was not going to tolerate such arch theft, and he singled-out Gazprom as a specific target for his attention. ibid.
ETG’s curious relations with shadowy companies in Cyprus, Turkmenistan, Moldova, the Seychelles, France, Britain and elsewhere emerged ... The ETG scam remains a mysterious, inscrutable affair. Whoever conceived the idea was determined to remain anonymous. ibid.
In recent years a silent revolution has taken place: we thought the age of fossil fuels was coming to an end … The United States firmly back on the map as an oil and gas producing super-power. Thanks to the shale revolution … has opened up a huge reservoir of fossil energy. Shale Cowboys: Fracking Under Trump, VPRO 2017
A few men in Texas are turning the energy supply industry on its head. ibid.
It looks as though fracking heralds a golden future for the American energy market. But there are major differences of opinion about the safety of the technique. It is said to pose several dangers to the environment: to cause earthquakes, and to contaminate the underground fresh-water reserves. ibid.
1996: A large gas field was discovered off the west coast of Ireland. With the gas came the prospect of economic prosperity for the West. It was planned to feed the gas underwater via a high pressure pipe to the coast. The raw gas would then travel 9 kilometres inland through farms in Rossport to a refinery at Ballinaboy. If the pipe fails, the consequences could be catastrophic. The Pipe, 2010
2005: ‘Five men from County Mayo are in prison this evening for blocking the construction of a gas pipeline through their land by the multinational energy company Shell.’ ibid. news
3rd October 2006 Refinery Construction Site: ‘The state really went to war against us and with one intent, and that is to break the momentum of what is going on.’ ibid.
2008: Shell announce a new alternative pipeline route in an attempt to satisfy local community concerns. ibid.
‘Everybody’s selling it. They wanna suck on them balloons, bro. They just wanna get on it, bruv. Everybody fucking sucks it, bruv.’ Inside the Laughing Gas Black Market: High Society s1e2, dealer, Vice TV 2017
No-one takes drugs quite like the British … The UK has one of the world’s most excessive drug habits. ibid.
The British use nitrous oxide more than any other country in the world. And it recently became the second must popular drug in the UK. The media quickly became obsessed with it. ibid.
Even the police tried to get a piece of the action [ebay]. ibid.
Changing the law hasn’t affected the demand. ibid.
Gas street lighting spread out from London across the rest of the country. How the Victorians Built Britain s1e3: The Making of the Modern Home, Channel 5 2018
Our new prime minister in facing a national crisis. What will Liz Truss do about soaring energy bills? Tonight, we investigate companies cashing in. And the extraordinary profits being made. While vulnerable families are pushed to the brink. Panorama: The Energy Crisis: Who’s Cashing In? BBC 2022
The crisis in the energy market has delivered a windfall for the energy producers. ibid.