A week after Parliament passed the motion banning hydraulic fracturing technology (fracking) in the exploration of shale gas, it emerged that the motion will have to be amended. Otherwise, the moratorium, passed with 166 votes in favour, under the vocal pressure of protesting environmental activists, will completely block all drilling and ground prospecting of oil and gas in the country.

The ban
Along with the ban on shale gas, MPs ruled to interdict any oil and gas drilling under pressure exceeding 20 atmospheres. Experts say that this is an absurd requirement because it effectively caps drilling depth at 200 metres.

"Even drilling for water goes further than that," the former head of natural resources and concessions directorate at the Economy Ministry, Hristo Kazandjiev, said.

The current head of the concessions department at the ministry, Tsvetan Petkov, told Capital Daily that drilling for industrial minerals such as kaolin and limestone is carried out under higher pressure. Some wells go as deep as four to five kilometres, while scientific geological prospecting may involve wells as deep as 10km.

According to Petkov, MPs should amend the moratorium to eliminate any reference to well depth. "It's not even clear what will happen to current wells," he said.

MPs did not consult the ministry prior to adopting the ban, which was fairly vague, he said.

Deputy Economy Ministry Delyan Dobrev has also come out to say that the moratorium needed amending because as formulated now, it would affect not just shale gas prospecting, but conventional exploration as well.

Bulgarian Chamber of Mining and Geology has issued a statement saying that the ban on hydro-fracking in Bulgaria could be interpreted in different ways and could be applied to conventional extraction of oil and gas.

Reactions
The moratorium has engendered confusion among companies currently prospecting for oil and gas in Bulgaria. The Economy Ministry has been flooded with requests to clarify how the moratorium's provision are to be enforced.

Assen Georgiev, a geologist with more than 30 years of experience who now supervises wells drilled by Rusgeokom BG near Rogozina, told Capital Daily that the moratorium would persuade all exploration companies to abandon operations in Bulgaria. Georgiev, who described the ban as "absolute folly" and "idiocy", said: "The people speaking on the issue are so incompetent that I am ashamed to listen."

Kolyo Tonev is the manager of Transatlantic Petroleum, the US company that has been exploring the gas field near Deventsi, where it has found significant quantities of natural gas. He said that the ban de facto blocked all exploration activities.

"One of our wells is 4300 metres deep and the other is 3200 metres deep, which makes them subject to the moratorium," he said. However, having invested $50 million, the company did not plan to abandon its operations just yet.

Even conventional exploration of gas via drilling uses the banned fracking technology, including at the Chiren gas field, estimated to hold 400 million cubic metres of natural gas, he said.

The moratorium also contradicts the law on the geological storage of carbon dioxide, passed by Parliament at second reading earlier in January (the law implements the provisions of Directive 2009/31/EC of the Parliament and the Council, according to the Economy Ministry). To implement the law's provisions, exploration and deep well-drilling will be required.

Damages
The absurd situation in which oil exploration firms found themselves could lead them to seek damages for lost business opportunities if wells have to be abandoned.

The Economy Ministry has confirmed that should exploration firms pursue legal action, the state could be held liable. The damages would not be inconsequential, given that a single well can cost between five and 10 million euro, industry sources said.