Guardian: Lord Browne promises to invest 'whatever it takes' in UK fracking

Lord Browne, the former chief of BP and now the most senior business adviser to the coalition government, has vowed to defy environmentalists to invest "whatever it takes" – potentially running to billions of pounds – in the controversial UK "dash for gas".

In a rare interview Browne, chairman of Cuadrilla Resources, the UK's only shale gas driller, and managing partner at Riverstone Holdings, the venture capital firm that backs it, told the Guardian that despite so far sinking what industry insiders estimate to have been hundreds of millions of pounds in Cuadrilla's shale operations without a return, much more would follow.

"We will finance whatever it takes. Equity finance, then debt and equity. If we really succeed, it will be billions, over 10 years it will be billions [of finance to provide]," he said.  MORE