Get on and drill, says parliamentary chair – but report reveals uncertainties remain
Less dither, more drilling – that’s the message an influential parliamentary committee has for the government in a report on UK shale gas.
But the report also highlights concerns about the fuel, including whether the government is sitting on a long-awaited assessment of how much shale gas the country has got.
The latest report from the energy and climate change (ECC) committee contrasts how domestic extraction of shale gas has given the USA the “cheapest gas market in the world” with disappointing” progress in the UK over the last two years. But it also asks whether the government can put the policies in place to make sure shale gas doesn’t threaten the country’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Where’s the government assessment of shale gas gone?
The British Geological Survey (BGS)’s assessment of the UK’s shale gas resource, undertaken for the Department for Energy and Climate Change – expected since last summer – appears to have got stuck somewhere in the governmental wheels.
ECC’s report rather doubtfully says “if and when” the number is released, the government should concentrate on communicating how much shale gas can be feasibly extracted ( the reserves), rather than the total resource lying underground.
But the committee points out finding out how much companies can get their hands on hasn’t been easy so far. It says it’s “astonished” that BGS hasn’t had access to the results of test results so far – presumably because companies have denied it access. The committee concludes:
“…it is impossible to determine reliable estimates of shale gas in the UK unless and until we have practical production experience.”
The government should encourage shale gas companies to proceed with drilling in order to improve current estimates, the committee says. And the companies should up their game too – the report recommends they should be required to share their results with the relevant bodies.
How much shale gas is there offshore – and can the UK get it out?
According to the report, no-one is exploring for shale gas under the sea anywhere at the moment. But in its evidence to the committee for the report, BGS said this is where the UK’s biggest resources could lie, tentatively suggesting a resource figure of 1,000 trillion cubic feet under the Irish Sea. To provide context, the biggest gas field in the world is 1,235 trillion cubic feet, so that sounds pretty big.
BGS’s representative also told ECC that attempting to exploit this resource would require the UK to pioneer new methods of exploration and production. Companies could adapt platforms used in North Sea oil and gas extraction – but the government would have to move fast to claim them. With no action, the platforms will start to be decommissioned over the next 10 to 15 years, as the conventional North Sea gas industry winds down.
Will the Office of Unconventional Gas and OIl have a conflict of interest?
The government has created a new body, the Office of Unconventional Gas and OIl, to support the industry and co-ordinate regulation. But some of ECC’s witnesses were concerned that the body’s different roles – as both regulator and promoter – could create a conflict of interest.
Professor Kevin Anderson at the Tyndall Centre – the author of a report criticising UK shale gas’s climate impacts – told the committee that this could be equivalent of “the fox looking after the chickens”.
Even the chief executive of oil and gas company Cuadrilla agreed that “promotion and regulation…are two different things”. Whether there really will be a conflict of interest built into the office’s tasks should become clear soon. The government is expected to give more detail on the new body’s remit this year.
Shale gas and climate change – hoping that CCS starts to work
Unchecked, the development of gas-fired generation could bust the UK’s climate change targets, the committee warns. It recommends that the government brings in new measures like an emissions performance standard, which would set a limit on the amount of pollution that can come from power stations. It also argues that the government needs to push on with reforms to the electricity market to make sure that gas doesn’t displace renewables.
The ECC committee’s qualified support for shale gas hasn’t pleased everyone. Environmental group WWF is dismayed that the report “appeared not to acknowledge the fundamental incoherence between exploiting shale gas and tackling climate change” – arguing that unconventional fuels like shale gas need to “stay in the ground” if the world is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
The commercialisation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is a crucial part of plans to keep using gas-fired power while keeping emissions down, the committee says. But the “repeated delays” in the government’s attempts to fund CCS demonstration projects lead the committee to conclude that the availability of CCS in the near-future is “extremely unlikely”, it adds.
In his evidence to the committee, Prime Minister David Cameron made it clear that he sees CCS as a critical part of meeting climate targets – but also appeared to indicate that the country would proceed with gas-fired power station whether or not CCS emerges. This, says, ECC, makes the development of the technology even more important.