On Wednesday last week, the hype that has surrounding fracking in the US finally arrived in the UK. The energy firm Cuadrilla, which has been drilling wells in the North West of the country under Lancashire, announced a “huge find” of gas. Cuadrilla announced that that its tests showed there could be as much as … Read More
Fracking
Will Europe Heed Warnings over Fracking?
A recent report by the World Economic Forum on the future of the gas markets has highlighted the revolution that is currently happening in this sector. The report started by saying: “What a difference a few years can make in one of the world’s major energy markets. Advances in the production of unconventional gas – … Read More
Shale Gas Investment is “Eye-Watering”
The world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton has signalled it too wants to get in on the shale gas revolution sweeping the US, despite the growing controversy over fracking. In a deal announced late last week, BHP agreed to pay $12.1bn for Houston-based gas developer Petrohawk, with a view to spending nearly $50 billion developing … Read More
China To Start Fracking Too
What a difference a day makes. Last week, the FT’s “Energy Special” pull-out included an article on China’s potential for shale gas. The article quoted a recent report from the investment bank, Jefferies which said: “Unconventional gas is a dream come true for China’s energy policymakers,” but then the report added “China does not need … Read More
Houston “I think we have a big problem”
As I have often written about in the past, the oil industry is all about risk and reward. At some stage it has to lure large scale investors to bet large amounts of money that it has found large reserves of oil gas than can be readily exploited. It is an industry that is often … Read More
UK Gov Dismisses Fracking Inquiry Call
Another day and another review has been ordered into the controversial technique called fracking. Last week, the Governor of Maryland established the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative”, which will review the safety of the drilling technique for natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Western Maryland. “We are also very concerned about an array of … Read More
Gas is No “Panacea” For Climate Change
As the old saying goes “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.” And if it smells like a fossil fuel and is produced by the fossil fuel industry, then it probably is a fossil fuel. So despite the best efforts by the oil … Read More
Fracking “Causing Earthquakes”
For an industry that prides itself on precision engineering and drilling, fracking is a brutal technique with unforeseen consequences. The oil industry is trying to argue that fracking which exploits shale gas is a “game changer” that will guarantee energy security for years to come. But the industry already faces growing public opposition due to … Read More
Dash for Shale Gas Undermines Wind
The last time that America’s pro-wind lobby came together for its regular get-together was in California in 2007. That time there were 5,000 attendees and the installed wind capacity in the US was 17 gigawatts. Four years later and on the surface it is a success story for America’s pro-wind lobby. Yesterday saw the opening … Read More
France to Say “Non” to Fracking
Just last week, a study by the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security concluded that unconventional gas resources in Europe – such as shale gas – could radically reshape the continent’s oil and gas outlook, and reduce its dependency on Russia and the Middle East. The report said that, in theory “Europe’s unconventional gas … Read More