Shale gas will bolster security of supply in the UK, displace a proportion of LNG imports and underpin new gas power generation projects. Substantial volumes of shale gas production, however, are not expected to be forthcoming until the mid-2020ies, delegates at the Gas to Power Britain conference learnt.

Britain's shale gas reserves, primarily concentrated in the Bowland basin, are to amount to as much as 1,329 trillion cubic feet (tcf), enough to meet demand for 44 years. However, a plethora of legal and technical challenges are expected to impede a replication of the US shale gas revolution in the UK, forecast Michelle Hubert, senior policy adviser – energy and climate change, CBI.

The lack of public acceptability for shale gas is seen as one key impediment, especially as land owners do not have the same ownership over sub-surface, hence limiting the support for development, she outlined. Combined with this a higher population density makes extraction a more costly and difficult task in the UK than in the US where access to fields is easier.  MORE