Telegraph: Davos 2013: UK shale gas no 'game changer', says British Gas boss Sam Laidlaw
Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, said it would be at least a decade before the UK saw any shale gas production and that, even then, it would not be “the game changer we’ve seen in North America”.
In December, the Chancellor unveiled tax breaks for shale gas exploration and ended a moratorium on the controversial fracking process used to extract the gas, imposed after the technique caused minor tremors near Blackpool in 2011.
Speaking on the fringes of an energy event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Laidlaw said shale gas would not be a miracle solution to dwindling North Sea oil “partly because of the environmental concerns and partly because we don’t have a well-developed supply chain”.
He added that other obstacles included planning regulations, the “density of the population” in potential exploration areas, and “landowners’ incentives”. MORE