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
In years to come, yesterday’s announcement of the mind-boggling amounts of shale gas beneath our feet may be seen as a game-changer for Britain. It is almost impossible to exaggerate how important it could prove for us over the next century. Just one site has an estimated 1,300 trillion cubic feet of the stuff. That could theoretically supply us for 433 years. Even if we can only extract ten per cent it’ll last half a century. It would be the biggest site in Europe. Alone it would make the UK a world leader in shale production. Shale may be a few years off. But it is a golden opportunity we must embrace. --Editorial,
The Sun, 28 June 2013
There is not a lot of good news around these days. The one great exception is the revelation that here in England we have more than twice as much shale gas to be exploited than was previously reckoned. This offers the prospect of both an abundance of cheaper energy and a greatly reduced need to import. Yet there are those who wish to turn their backs on it. We have to ask what sort of people we wish to be. Are we to be held to ransom by green fanaticism or are we prepared to face the future with confidence and take advantage of the huge opportunity – which promises to be even bigger than North Sea oil – that beckons? Let’s get fracking. –Nigel Lawson,
The Sun, 28 June 2013
The industrial might of the United States in the early 20th century was built on cheap domestic oil. North America’s recovery since the 2008 crash — sluggish but still enviable by European standards — has been fuelled largely by the rapid exploitation of shale oil and gas reserves from the Dakotas to California. A similar transformation of national energy supply is possible in Britain. No wonder the Chancellor would like the country to be “at the forefront in exploiting shale gas”. Without growth, every element of a spending review looks hopeful at best. With growth, hope begins to look plausible, and nothing underpins it more reliably than cheap, domestic energy. Greenpeace would naturally like the world to use less of it, but it has no monopoly on environmental concern and local gas is greener by far than imported gas, or coal. It is time to drill. --Editorial,
The Times, 28 June 2013
So what will happen in Britain? It’s still too early to say. George Osborne has offered tax incentives to shale, but they’re not needed. The block is the obstacles which quangos like the Environment Agency will throw in front of the would-be shale producers. Shale upsets a lot of people’s plans for a future of heavily-subsidised renewable energy which can be a license to print money. The three opponents of shale are Big Green, Big Oil and Big Government. With Owen Paterson in the Environment Department, shale does have a friend in government. Yesterday’s figures showed that Britain can expect years of austerity ahead – unless there is a game changer. Shale gas just might be it. --Fraser Nelson,
The Spectator, 27 June 2013
A spectre is haunting Russia: the spectre of shale gas. It is seeping into the salons of power, discomfiting Russia’s leaders and their
bizniz cronies. Energy companies account for half of the value of the Russian stockmarket, and a single, state-backed firm, Gazprom, produces 10% of the country’s exports. Russian politics are also built on conventional oil and gas: Vladimir Putin is in essence the CEO of Russian Energy Inc. The revolution in unconventional gas production from shale beds, which began in the United States and is now spreading around the world, is shaking Russian state capitalism to its foundations. --
The Economist, 29 June 2013
