Fracking 'unlikely to give UK cheap gas', report says
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...s-8582089.html
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George Osborne's plan to deliver cheap energy by fostering a fracking revolution has been dealt a severe blow after an influential cross-party group of experts said any boom in shale gas production would be "unlikely to give the UK cheap gas".
A nine-month inquiry chaired by former energy minister Charles Hendry, concludes that it is far too early to estimate the volume of shale gas contained in UK rocks and harder still to know how much of that it will be commercially viable to extract.
Further complicating the picture, developers in densely populated Britain could find it difficult to secure planning permission to extract the gas, which is produced using the environmentally unpopular practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
But even if vast quantities of shale gas are eventually produced, the report finds that this would be unlikely to have much impact on household and businesses energy bills – although it would be good for the economy. "Despite the support for UK shale gas announced in the Chancellor's Budget, there remains a great uncertainty around the size of the prize and developments in the industry, which could take a decade and are unlikely to give the UK cheap gas," concluded the report by Carbon Connect, a steering group of industry and academic experts chaired jointly by Mr Hendry, a Conservative MP, and Baroness Worthington, Labour's Energy and Climate Change spokesperson in the House of Lords.
The findings contradict Mr Osborne's assertions in his Budget last month, when he announced generous tax breaks for fracking companies and hinted at financial incentives to persuade local communities to join the shale gas rush.
"I want Britain to tap into new sources of low-cost energy such as shale gas," said the Chancellor who has placed gas at the centre of Britain's power-generation strategy and wants to build up to 40 new gas-fired power stations in the UK.
A UK shale price boom will have little to no bearing on the energy price in this country, the report argues, because the gas can be exported through pipes to Europe where the prices are higher or by being frozen to 1/600th of its size and shipped further afield to Asia in the form of liquefied natural gas for an even higher price. As a result, the UK price is likely to rise at least to European levels.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...s-8609940.html
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Mr Osborne announced tax breaks in his recent budget to kickstart a fracking boom.
Some 32,000 square miles, or 64 per cent of the British countryside, could potentially be exploited for shale gas, covering vast swathes of the South of England, the North-west and Northeast and the Central belt in Scotland.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-22477559
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Cuadrilla, which holds licences to test for shale gas in Lancashire, has said explorations have already found Lancashire's Bowland basin holds at least 200 trillion cubic feet of gas and claimed it has a market value of £136bn.
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Cuadrilla is an American-Australian-British affair, with close ties to China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
There's no good news for the consumer but billions of dollars of profit for the multinationals.
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