Member Article

NEPIC welcome shale gas investment push

The Process Industry welcomes the Government’s announcement that investment into shale gas extraction will be encouraged.

The Government announcement follows within weeks of the publication of an Institute of Directors (IOD) report “Getting shale Gas Working” which described the potential for this natural resource to bring huge economic benefits to the UK.

It suggested that up to one third of the UKs gas requirements could be supplied in this way by 2030 and that this new industry would support as many as 74,000 jobs. The IOD report says that about 1000 billion cubic feet of shale gas per annum could be extracted which by 2030 would reduce the UK’s gas imports from 76% to 37% reducing the UK’s gas imports from £15.6 to £7.5 billion (at today’s prices).

Dr Stan Higgins of NEPIC said “All industry is ultimately reliant on energy especially the Chemical Industry. It is this industry that actually underpins all other manufacturing. We supply the materials and effects that other industries convert into the stuff we use to build and use in our homes, cars, hospitals, schools and everyday life.

“Many industrialists and particularly those from the process sector have been concerned for some time about two issues. Firstly the security of supply of gas in the UK particularly during winter, as the UK has to import most of what it uses. We have urged Government to create more storage facilities for imported gas. Secondly the fact that we are importing so much of our gas is one of the reasons that we have been seeing increasing energy prices over the last decade.”

In the USA where there has been huge investment into shale gas extraction energy prices has fallen dramatically. This has resulted in the on-shoring of some industries and European industrials have fears that this could result in a wave of cheap imports in future from North America which would be damaging to European industry.

Dr Higgins added: “Hopefully the speedy implementation of shale gas extraction and also a related technology of underground coal gasification are two ways that the UK could counteract this and return to globally competitive energy pricing..

“Shale gas is exactly the same stuff as natural gas we use toady except its trapped in the rocks. The natural gas we use today passed through a similar shale gas phase and in reality are just much larger pockets of what was former “shale gas” trapped in bigger rock structures.

“Introducing small fractures to the rocks is a process called “fracking” and it is this this that releases small bubbles of the natural gas from the rock so that it can be collected and used it in our homes and factories. It is the same gas that will emerge from the pipe in the kitchen or factory floor.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by NEPIC .