Huge swathes of Britain are up for grabs in a new round of gas exploration licences which the government is due to issue soon. Could this be the answer to cheaper energy bills? Looking over the maps he drew up for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Nigel Smith, a geologist working for the British Geographical Survey, highlights which areas of the UK contain the most potential for gas exploration. "Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, the Wessex Basin - and that could include the Isle of Wight and Dorset," he says. "Scotland...the Midland valley, too." --Simon Cox, BBC News, 13 October 2011
