The Potential For UK Fracking
Updated: 2:08pm UK, Monday 13 January 2014
The potential for extracting gas and oil using hydraulic fracturing in the UK seems vast, but is mired in uncertainly.
Here we summarise some of the many issues:
SHALE GAS - UK ECONOMIC IMPACT AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "RESOURCES" AND "RESERVES"
The UK Onshore Operators Group, the body that represent companies drilling for oil and gas in the UK admits its impossible to be accurate about the economic impact of shale gas in the UK due to the fact that the industry is still, in its words, at a "very early stage".
We won't know for at least a year the true extent of shale gas fields in the UK. More tests are due to take place in Scotland, Wales and Southern England.
Currently no one is fracking in the UK. So far there has been no UK commercial production whatsoever.
Across the whole of Europe there are currently 10 fracking crews (source UKOOG).
That compares with 500 fracturing crews and 1,900 rigs across the US (source UKOOG).
The scale of operation in the US reflects the fact that the process was first carried out in 1949 and has grown steadily ever since.
UKOOG does say shale gas will "improve liquidity of the gas market" here and that there will be unquantifiable future benefits in lower imports, higher revenues to the Exchequer and increased energy security.
RESOURCES AND RESERVES
Last summer, the British Geological Survey estimated that one area in north west England, called the Bowland Basin, could contain 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas resources.
Based on average household consumption of 16,000 KwH per year, that would be enough gas for all the homes in the UK for 9,700 years.
But experts say any idea it will provide anywhere near that amount of gas should be treated with caution.
That's because there is an important distinction between "resource" - how much is thought to be down there - and "reserve", the amount of gas that can be commercially produced.
The BGS itself admits there is "no possible or accurate" measure to predict reserves. In the US only a fraction of the resource is recovered.
US SHALE GAS: FACTS AND FIGURES
So why are we getting so excited? It's because in the US shale gas is having a big impact on jobs and energy prices.
An IHS Global Insight study is estimating that by 2015, shale gas production will contribute more than $118bn in GDP to the US economy and support 870,000 jobs.
The America Natural Gas association says that it will add $926 of disposable income per household.
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