Fracking: Coming Soon to a Town Near You

It is no longer a question of whether or not we will use fracking in the UK but more of when and where. 1000 square miles of England are currently being opened up to 27 new fracking sites mainly in Yorkshire, the North-West and the East-Midlands as the government has given energy companies permission to explore for oil and gas reserves. The map below produced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change shows just how much of the country is being reviewed for potential fracking sites compared to what is already licensed.

 Map of fracking exploration in the UK produced by DECC. Source. 

As I am from the North-West I am going to do a quick focus on potential fracking sites being reviewed in this region: 

• There have been appeals by Cuadrilla for 2 new sites in Lancashire as it is estimated that the shale gas reserves in Lancashire alone are worth up to £140billion. They are now focusing on the advancement of horizontal wells in the region to provide better data of recoverable shale gas.
•  IGas has one site under evaluation on Salford but this has been subject to a lot of protests. Mancunians can be very passionate.
• Dart Energy is involved in exploration for shale gas in Cheshire, the chief executive of the Australian company has said he “can’t wait to start drilling in Wayne Rooney’s backyard” but no specific drilling locations have yet been found.

However, fracking is set to be banned from 40% of the land being offered up to shale gas exploration after the Scottish government declared a moratorium on the fracking industry as a whole. An independent analysis by Greenpeace found that 45% of land being licensed for fracking in England were at least 50% covered by protected areas, only 3% had no protected areas at all. Ministers have now agreed to ban fracking activity on the surface in National Parks but have allowed energy companies to frack outside the park boundaries and drill horizontally underneath them.

Map showing how known shale gas reserves and areas up for exploration are interlocked with protected National Parks. Source.

So it is clear that there is going to be a lot of fracking in our future and a large portion of the public are going to be affected. But it is not all bas news, the DECC expects investments in the shale gas to reach £33 billion in the next few years and will provide 64,000 jobs in the oil, gas, construction, engineering and chemical sectors at the same time as providing a cost-efficient bridge to lower-carbon energy use. Maybe a fracking site near you isn't the worst thing. I personally think we should at least allow the exploration to happen so we know what we are dealing with instead of just outright denying fracking as a whole.