UK Opposition to Shale Confirms UKCS Centrality

In a moment the industry eyes a y-o-y growth in UK Continental Shelf production, British public support for shale gas further fell to its lowest ever level, indicating that the United Kingdom could provisionally forget a shale rush and focus on offshore operations.

According to the DECC Public Attitudes survey, public opinion gradually shifted from relative support to relative opposition over the last 19 months.  

‘When asked whether they support or oppose extracting shale gas, almost half of the public neither supported nor opposed it (46%). Amongst those that did offer an opinion, slightly more opposed (28%) extraction of shale than supported it (21%). This is a reversal of the findings when these questions were first asked at wave 8, when 27% supported it against 21% that opposed’ reads the report.  

The survey also indicates that public awareness of fracking remained stable over the same period, with 75% of the public aware of the process. The UK Department of Energy also wrote that awareness and opposition are correlated.

‘There is more opposition than support amongst those who know a lot about it (54% vs. 32%), know a little about it (35% vs. 27%), and those who are aware of it but don’t really know what it is (23% vs. 13%). The only group to be more supportive are those that haven’t heard of fracking, of whom 12% support it and 7% oppose it.’

Environmentalists intervened in the debate, commenting the results.

“The government’s own survey shows ministers’ priorities on energy are at the polar opposite of what the British public wants” Daisy Sands, Greenpeace UK head of energy, said. 

Meanwhile, on Monday, Oil & Gas UK released a report saying that UKCS production increased 2.5% in the first half of 2015.

“Recent provisional figures from the Department for Energy (DECC) suggest that oil and gas production from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) over the first six months of this year could be 2.5 per cent higher than the same period last year. It’s still early days, but initial indications suggest that production could increase this year for the first time in fifteen years” Deirdre Michie, chief executive at Oil & Gas UK, commented in a separate press release.  

Sergio Matalucci is an Associate Partner at Natural Gas Europe. He holds a BSc and MSc in Economics and Econometrics from Bocconi University, and a MA in Journalism from Aarhus University and City University London. He worked as a journalist in Italy, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. Follow him on Twitter: @SergioMatalucci