UK industry group slams opposition call for shale gas fracking ban

UK onshore industry group UKOOG Oct. 19 slammed the opposition Labour Party for its stance on the use of hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking -- in shale gas developments.

Labour -- which has a huge lead over the ruling Conservative Party in polls -- has pledged to ban fracking and moved Oct. 19 to table a parliamentary motion to guarantee time for a bill on banning fracking.

"The public should be outraged that one of the major political parties in the UK is trying to outlaw a critical form of energy," UKOOG director Charles McAllister said.

"If we do not produce more gas in the UK, we will be locked into reliance on carbon intensive and expensive LNG imports from abroad, namely from the shale gas fields in the US or from the petrostate Qatar," McAllister said.

The UK government under Prime Minister Liz Truss Sept. 22 lifted its moratorium on fracking for the development of shale gas as part of a new domestic energy security push.

Truss sees shale gas as a potential tool for improving energy security and making the most of the UK's domestic resources against the backdrop of record-high international gas prices.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the UK NBP month-ahead gas price at an all-time high of 598 pence/therm ($70.44/MMBtu) on Aug. 26. It was last assessed at 195 p/th on Oct. 18.

Cuadrilla drilling

The UK put in place a moratorium on fracking in England in November 2019 after an analysis of the environmental impact of work at Cuadrilla Resources' site at Preston New Road.

Cuadrilla was forced to suspend work at the site after a magnitude 2.9 tremor occurred in August 2019.

However, following growing calls for the government to lift the de facto ban on fracking following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Truss ditched the moratorium.

Labour's shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said Oct. 18 that Labour would ban fracking "for good" and the party tabled a motion Oct. 19 that would give Conservative MPs the opportunity to oppose Truss's stance on fracking.

The Sept. 22 decision came alongside the publication of the British Geological Survey's scientific review into shale gas extraction, which was commissioned earlier this year.

The review recognized that there was only limited understanding of UK geology and onshore shale resources given that only three test wells have been fracked in the UK to date.

"It is clear that we need more sites drilled in order to gather better data and improve the evidence base and we are aware that some developers are keen to assist with this process," the government said.

"Lifting the pause on shale gas extraction will enable drilling to gather this further data, building an understanding of UK shale gas resources and how we can safely carry out shale gas extraction in the UK where there is local support."

Shale gas potential

It is estimated that the northern Bowland Shale gas formation in England alone holds as much as 37.6 Tcm of shale gas. Just 10% of that volume could meet UK gas needs for 50 years, according to Cuadrilla.

However, several academic studies have suggested the true resource was much lower. In 2019, research from Nottingham University said resources within the Bowland Shale formation could be up to five times lower than previous estimates suggested.

The research, supported by the BGS, said economically recoverable reserves of Bowland shale gas could be less than 10 years of current UK gas consumption -- implying a ceiling of around 800 Bcm.

There are also growing doubts about whether the geology in the UK is suitable for a large-scale shale gas industry to develop.