14th June 2022
Charles McAllister, Director of UK Onshore Oil and Gas said:
"UKOOG welcomes this report from the Free Market Forum* which calls for the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing to be lifted and for the traffic light system to be substituted with a ground motion based framework.”
“The industry has always maintained that shale gas development in the UK can be undertaken safely and without unacceptable impacts on local communities. Development of shale gas is one of the greatest industrial opportunities for a generation and natural gas, coupled with carbon capture and storage, will be a key element of the UK energy mix for many decades to come."
“A failure to adopt the regulatory recommendations in this report, among others, will see a continuation of the UK’s over reliance on natural gas imports, posing economic, environmental and geopolitical risks to the UK.”
“UK shale gas can deliver more energy per km2 per year than any other onshore technology, and should be seen as instrumental in delivering the Government’s recently published Energy Security Strategy”
“The report also recommends that a greater share of revenue from shale gas production goes to local communities. The industry is currently in discussions to deliver an increase, as recommended, which could see transformational amounts of capital injected into former industrial communities for use as local people see fit, such as reducing energy bills. These financial benefits would see relief for the regions which host shale gas production in light of an unprecedented cost of living crisis.”
“The choice for the UK is simple; produce the energy we need from the abundant onshore natural gas resources under our feet or drift deeper into reliance on foreign sources”
*The Free Market Forum is a project of the Institute of Economic affairs and has over 60 parliamentary supporters.
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