Bloomberg: Shale gas halted in UK by six-month permit wait

In Texas it takes seven days to get permission to use hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and gas. In the U.K. the wait is six months.

That difference helps explain why David Cameron’s dream of a fracking boom in the U.K., where there may be enough shale gas to meet the country’s demand for decades, has been slow to take shape.

Britain under Cameron’s Conservative-led government is more pro-shale than anywhere in the European Union bar Poland. Yet since a moratorium was lifted in December 2012, not a single company has applied to frack in the country, even though the government offers some of the world’s richest exploration tax breaks. That’s got sobering implications for governments across Europe closely watching Cameron’s shale push.

“The U.K. would like to lead the shale gas revolution in Europe,” said Paul Stevens, distinguished fellow for energy at Chatham House in London. “But, if the U.K. can’t get this going, partly because of the environmental opposition, then that means Europe is even less likely to see results.”  MORE