UK needs 6,000 shale gas wells to fill 50% of imports, study says
More than 6,000 shale gas wells would be needed to replace half the UK’s gas imports over a 15-year period, according to a new report.
The nascent UK fracking industry has argued that growing reliance on gas from Norway and Qatar necessitates developing home-produced supplies in addition to North Sea output.
Recent arrivals of Russian gas by ship have prompted shale advocates to repeat the argument.
However, analysis for Friends of the Earth by the Cardiff Business School found that at least one well would need to be drilled and fracked daily between 2021 and 2035 to replace 50% of gas imports.
Rose Dickinson, at Friends of the Earth, 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 FoE research found 6,100 wells on 1,000 well pads would take up around 3,560 hectares of land (around 13 square miles), based on analysis of government figures, National Grid forecasts and other data.
But no one expects there to be that many wells. The most bullish estimate came in a 2013 report by the Institute of Directors, forecasting 4,000 wells by 2032.
The government admits its most recent estimate of 155 wells by 2025, produced last year, is already out of date.
The research comes as the shale firm Cuadrilla continues with its project to frack in Lancashire within the next two months, which would be the first time a company has fracked in the UK since 2011.
The industry’s exploratory phase has been repeatedly delayed, with companies including Ineos, iGas and Third Energy bogged down in planning, and dogged by protests.
Government polling on Thursday will reveal the latest public sentiment on extracting shale gas. There was a small uptick in support in February, but twice as many people still opposed 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UK Onshore Oil and Gas, said: “This is a poor quality report, which uses data for well productivity which is years out of date and far lower than the current US average to arrive at artificially high numbers of wells.”