The Minister for the Economy and Industry at the Junta de Andalucia, Antonio Ávila, expressed his frustration at plans to allow fracking in Spain to go ahead. He had called for a moratorium whilst the concept and its consequences were studied more closely.

His opposite number from the Central Government, José Manuel Soría, on the other hand, considers that Spain cannot waste this opportunity to reduce to necessity to import oil and other hydro-carburate fuel sources. He also says that the Central Government’s stance is in line with that of Günther Oettinger at the European Commission.

To date, the Junta has accepted several investigation projects involving fracking within Andalucia, although no authorization to go ahead with the extraction process has ever been given.

The first case of using hydraulic fracturing was carried out as early as 1947 and by 2010, it was estimated that 60% of all new oil and gas wells worldwide were being hydraulically fractured.

Those in favour of fracking emphasize the economic benefits from huge quantities of hithertoe inaccessible hydrocarbons, whilst the detractors are worried about the potential environmental impacts: contamination of ground water, depletion of fresh water, risks to air quality, the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, surface contamination from spills and flow-back and the health effects of these.

(News: Andalucia)