UK Government to Promote Unconventional Gas, Become Leader in Europe

UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey said that the shale gas industry has to deal with the false notions about the danger of hydraulic fracturing, adding that the government will help to promote unconventional gas.

"Because those myths have taken hold in some areas, and sometimes when a myth takes hold it's quite difficult to dispel it," Davey told on Wednesday.

Recently, a package of community incentives designed to overcome strong local opposition to “fracking” was unveiled by the British government, after the release of the new estimates of shale gas reserves published by the British Geological Survey. 

In late June, the British Geological Survey (BGS) doubled its estimate of shale gas resource (gas-in-place) in part of central Britain, with the central estimate for the resource being over 1,300 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

Shale gas development is in its early stages in the UK, but there are already 176 licenses for onshore oil and gas exploration currently issued. The European shale gas industry hopes to achieve similar results to the ones obtained in the US in terms of gas prices and gas imports, but it is called to face higher hurdles for demographic, legal and cultural factors.

Davey said that the concerns about hydraulic fracturing are not based on reality. Technical studies have been proving that it is a viable way.

“I think we are putting together a package that will show we are leaders in Europe, and have learned lessons from elsewhere. Perhaps in due course we can show ourselves as leaders in the world,” he said.