Britain has just won the world’s biggest energy jackpot, potentially worth a staggering £1trillion. Yesterday it emerged that the United Kingdom not only holds the biggest shale basin in the world but that Britain most likely has the biggest shale reserves worldwide. The British Geological Survey released a study that estimates there could be 1,300 trillion cubic feet – or tcf – of shale gas trapped in the Bowland shale basin alone. In fact, the BGS’s upper estimate is a staggering 2,281 tcf – almost the total estimated American shale reserve of 2,500 tcf. Incredibly, this estimate does not include the huge shale reserves in the South of England or the Central Basin in Scotland. --Benny Peiser, Public Service Europe, 28 June 2013
