DART Energy, the company behind plans to drill for coal bed methane around Airth in central Scotland, said it expects ministers to take up to a year to rule on the controversial proposals.
The unconventional gas specialist aims to drill 22 wells at 14 sites to bring its coal seam gas project at Airth to development.
It appealed to the Scottish Government to rule on its application after its "non-determination" by Falkirk and Stirling councils, which said the plans raised environmental issues and public concerns to be addressed.
The Government said reporter Karen Heywood at the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals has judged the proposals are highly technical and have to be tested by cross examination, and that the cases should proceed by enquiry sessions. A spokeswoman said it would be the first half of October before a pre-examination meeting to establish the timing, start date, subject matter and participation can be held.
Australian-listed Dart said in its quarterly report yesterday that the process may take 12 months to resolve.
Dart also provided an update on its Solway Basin project at Canonbie, Dumfries and Galloway, where it aims to extra coal seam gas in an area straddling the border between Scotland and England.
The company plans to drill two more pilot production wells later this year after tests on two pilot wells revealed good flows of gas to surface in 2008.
Dart held a public meeting with local stakeholders and carried out work on land access in the last quarter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article