To Cover Half of its Imports the UK Needs 6000 Shale Gas Wells

If the UK wants to replace just 50% of its imports with domestic gas over a 15 year period, it will need to drill 6,000 new shale gas wells. This data comes as the result of an interesting new report.
Fracking is relatively new to the UK but there is an argument coming from fracking companies to increase its presence in the country. The argument highlights the fact that the UK has a growing reliance on gas imports from Norway and Qatar. This makes it more and more pressing that the UK develops its own, home-produced supplies. This notion has recently been compounded by an arrival of gas from Russia by ships.
While it is a nice idea to decrease our dependency on foreign gas, the Cardiff Business School provided analysis for eco-group Friends of the Earth to assess how feasible it would be. The findings showed that in order to replace half of the UK’s gas imports, at least one well would have to be drilled and fracked every day from 2021 through to 2035.
A member of Friends of the Earth, Rose Dickinson, said “this would mean an industrialisation of our countryside at a rate that nobody has yet fully appreciated and would put many more communities in the firing line of this dirty and unwanted industry.”
The research also showed that all of these wells, if spread over 1000 well pads, would take up around 13 square miles of land. This estimate is based on analysis of government figures as well as forecasts from the National Grid and other such relevant data.
However, the mainstream opinion is that there will not be that many wells. In fact, the largest estimate prior to the Friends of the Earth research said that there will only be 4000 wells by 2032. Although this report, produced by the Institute of Directors, was written back in 2013 and is almost definitely out of date. Even a report published by the government last year, in which it predicts there will be 155 wells by 2025, is already likely to need updating.
All of this research comes in the wake of the news that Cuadrilla is preparing to frack in Lancashire this year between July and September. This will be the first fracking procedure in the country since 2011. Fracking never got the exploratory phase it was after in the UK due to it being repeatedly delayed as a result of planning and protests. This has affected potential projects from a number of big gas firms, including Ineos, iGas, and Third Energy.
On Thursday, the people of the UK will come out in their droves to vote in local elections and this will reveal some of the nation’s sentiment towards extracting shale gas. Despite a small spike in support back in February, there are still twice as many people who are against it than for it.
Ken Cronin, chief executive of shale trade body, UK Onshore Oil and Gas, said: “This is a poor quality report, which uses data for well productivity which is years out of date and far lower than the current US average to arrive at artificially high numbers of wells.”