Fracking unlikely to produce cheap gas

IAN L Handford’s opinion piece on September 17 contained some errors when he mentioned fracking. I request that he admit his mistakes and correct the record for his readers. He wrote ‘Now with Ms Truss lifting the moratorium, experts are already confirming that within six months cheap shale gas will be flowing to our homes and businesses.’ Who exactly are these experts? I don’t know of any.

Yes, Liz Truss and some profracking groups are spreading that piece of disinformation but they do not back up the claim with evidence.

There are plenty of experts who will say the opposite. For example, scientists from the British Geological Survey (BGS) say the “maximum” amount of shale gas under the UK is 10 times lower than the “very optimistic interpretation” of US data cited by fracking advocates, from a 2013 BGS desk-based study. They also said it would be unlikely we would be able to recover enough to meet even five years of UK gas demand. No one has been able to contradict their findings.

Also, the industry’s lobby group UKOOG has publicly admitted that it would take years for UK fracking to start producing at scale. The industry’s best-case scenario for shale gas development in the UK states that fracking would not produce enough gas to meet even 1% of UK demand for more than three years. After an immediate start, we would still have to wait until the late 2020s for more than 5% of UK demand to be met by domestically produced shale gas. And why would it be cheap gas? As Kwasi Kwarteng said: “UK producers won’t sell shale gas to UK consumers below the market price. They’re not charities”.

Jon Ayers South Brent, Devon