Britain Creating Conditions for Sustainable Shale Gas Development

British politicians reiterated their endorsement of shale gas at the first day of the conference “UK shale 2013 – Making it happen,” taking place in London this Wednesday and Thursday. 

“The government is absolutely committed to insuring that the industry here can prosper if the conditions are right. We have done it already in a number of ways,” said Michael Fallon, UK Minister for Energy from March 2013.

Fellon referred to the Government’s decision to lift the informal moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in May and the parallel efforts to set up an efficient regulatory framework, reminding also of the estimates of gas-in-place in the Bowland basin published by the British Geological Survey in June. Fallon said that this information is making the market more transparent, confirming that new estimates at other UK areas would be published in March 2014. Transparency and good-quality information are key factors to trigger the nascent industry.

“Nations across the globe including India and China have looked in on this boom and are now joining in this boom… The United Kingdom is now getting serious about shale gas. We need to get on and explore our resources in order to fully understand the potentials,” commented Fallon.

The message is clear: national politicians are negotiating with all the different stakeholders in order to pave the way to a responsible and sustainable development. 

“That success will only come if development is done in partnership with communities… We must recognize that responsible developments means a responsibility to the communities that host shale operations,” commented Fallon. 

The Minister for Energy said that communities must be engaged from the very start of every shale application, adding that “local people should feel that they are getting the fair share from the development of shale.”

These negotiation processes require also a clear communication strategy.

“We have to be clear in the way we communicate,” said Fallon, underlining that onshore production and hydraulic fracturing are erroneously considered new phenomena. According to the Minister, a proper communication has to address also those “myths.”

This need to communicate was confirmed by operators. “The very fact of speaking about shale gas changes the way people think, generally favourably,” said Cuadrilla Resources’ CEO Francis Egan illustrating the potential of shale gas in the UK.

Local and National Government

“The price is big enough to be worth prioritising,” echoed Tim Yeo, Member of Parliament for the constituency of South Suffolk and Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, documenting a firm support of the Committee is heading. The support stems from the conviction that strong environmental protection is in place, said Yeo, acknowledging that the last hurdle for shale gas developments comes from local communities.

According to the Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, the logical solution to local communities’ scepticism would consist in granting a “fair share of mineral rights to local communities.”

Ben Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North, confirmed the need to go local in order to foster developments. 

“You have to understand what each County is thinking, what each Council is thinking,” commented Wallace, underlining the power of local politicians.

Wallace claimed that central government would stop the process if unable to consider local politicians’ requests, which potentially have the power to block exploration and production.

“It is a negotiation,” stated Wallace referring to the relationship between national and local politics, underlining also the importance to foster know-how about shale gas. According to Wallace, politicians have to engage local communities and universities in order to fully exploit shale gas potentials. Otherwise, industry’s path could be impracticable and even slower than expected.

But reasons for optimism are gaining ground in the last months. In June, the BGS doubled its estimate of shale gas resources (gas-in-place) in part of central Britain, on the area between Wexham and Blackpool in the west, and Nottingham and Scarborough in the east.

“It is a low estimate. It does not include liquids,” claimed Douglas Bain, Dart Energy’s Director, commenting on the central estimate of 1,329 tcf released by the BGS.

Also in June, the US government’s Energy Information Administration revised upward its estimates of UK shale gas resources, reporting that ‘technically recoverable’ shale gas reserves are at 26 trillion cubic feet (tcf). These figures refer to the amount of shale gas that can be extracted with the current technologies. They do not consider that these resources may be not economic viable or that technology could improve.

Sergio Matalucci