British Engineers: Shale Gas Can Rebalance Economy

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), a British engineering agency with over 100,000 members, has said today that shale gas could help to rebalance the economy in the UK as well as creating thousands of jobs.

In its statement, the IMechE says that controversial gas resource could create 4,200 jobs per year over a ten-year drill programme, with 1,300 jobs created in Lancashire alone. Lancashire, which has had difficulties in recent years attracting investment, is the site for one of the largest and most high-profile shale targets in Britain, the Bowland Basin where Cuadrilla Resources is currently operating.

The IMechE said today that while shale gas was not a "silver bullet" for the UK economy, it said that the resource could provide a boost to some of the worst-hit areas of the UK.

"Shale gas has the potential to give some of the regions hit hardest by the economic downturn a much-needed economic boost," IMechE Head of Energy and Environment, Dr. Tim Fox, said today. "The engineering jobs created will also help the Government’s efforts to rebalance the UK’s skewed economy."

However, he also advised that the successful production of shale gas was unlikely to have any significant effect on the gas market in Britain, due, largely, to the volatility of the gas market overall.

"UK shale gas could make a helpful contribution to the UK’s energy security for the next two centuries, but it is not the silver bullet many claim it is," he said. "It is unlikely to have a major impact on energy prices and the possibility that the UK might ever achieve self-sufficiency in gas is remote.

"A general over-reliance on gas will render the UK a hostage to volatile global energy markets, with or without UK shale gas. It is vital that the Government continues to develop a balanced energy policy, incorporating renewables, nuclear and fossil fuels with Carbon Capture and Storage."