Greenpeace has built a 10-metre high mock fracking rig outside Parliament, to protest the Government’s support for the controversial drilling method. The rig, accompanied by lorry and drilling sounds and featuring a flare which fires up every hour, was erected to coincide with the opening of a public inquiry into Cuadrilla’s proposals to frack for shale gas at two sites in Lancashire. Although Lancashire county councillors rejected the firm’s application last June, Cuadrilla has appealed against the decision and Greg Clark, the communities secretary, has said he will intervene to make the final decision.
Independent 9th February 2016 read more »
Rival tribes of shale gas executives and anti-fracking protesters converged on Blackpool Football Club on Tuesday for the latest round in Cuadrilla’s battle to win permission to drill in Lancashire. But experts say the UK’s shale industry is threatened less by planning protests and environmental campaigns and more by simple economics: the tumbling price of gas. “There could not be a worse time to be embarking on challenging gas projects,” said Howard Rogers, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. “UK shale might [become] commercially successful but I struggle to see that it is going to be of material scale.” The price of wholesale gas in the UK on the spot market has come down from about $1.20 per therm – the unit in which prices are generally measured – in late 2013 to about $0.40 now. Ahmed Farman, an oil and gas analyst at Jefferies, said: “There is a global glut of gas and we continue to see gas supply everywhere. That is why prices have come down so much. It means there is a big economic challenge for shale producers in the UK.”
FT 9th Feb 2016 read more »