Experts question high-risk British fracking plans

Energy experts have warned that United Kingdom plans to ramp up domestic fossil fuel extraction may not resolve the cost-of-energy crisis, and could instead jeopardize the nation's net-zero ambitions.

Prime Minister Liz Truss recently confirmed that a four-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing－or fracking－will be lifted in order to exploit "huge reserves" of shale gas beneath British soil.

In addition, Energy Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the UK will "extract every ounce of oil and gas from the North Sea", which he said will help protect against the kind of supply and price disruptions that have occurred during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The UK is expected to announce a new licensing round of up to 100 North Sea oil and gas contracts next week. The UK Climate Change Committee said that North Sea projects would take years to drill, and will have little impact on gas prices since the UK is interconnected with the global market. The committee instead recommended that the government focuses on building out renewable infrastructure and improving the UK housing stock, which scores poorly in terms of energy efficiency.

And several scientists have questioned if fracking can be rolled out at scale in the UK. Stuart Haszeldine, who is a professor of carbon capture and storage at the Edinburgh University, said that investment in fracking comes with a "very high commercial risk".

"The geology in the UK is wrong, and almost all of the oil or gas generated has leaked away millions of years ago," Haszeldine said.

Andrew Aplin, a geochemist at Durham University, said that even if fracking exploration in the UK were successful, the resultant gas would not bring down energy bills for households and businesses.

"Shale gas is not a rational answer to the UK's energy crisis," Aplin said. "Shale would only make a significant dent to UK imports if, over the next 15 years, thousands of successful wells were to be drilled at hundreds of sites across northern England."

He added: "The price we pay for the gas wouldn't change－but the increased production would be highly inconsistent with the government's net zero strategy."

There has been a ban on fracking in the UK since 2019, when shale gas extraction in Lancashire led to minor earthquakes.

Signaling its intent to revisit fracking, in April this year the government commissioned the British Geological Society to conduct a report into "new developments in the science of fracking" that could "reduce the risk and magnitude of seismic events".

Campaigners have requested that the government publishes the results from the report, which was sent to the government on July 5 and has yet to be made public.

"The science around fracking induced earthquakes has only gotten more damning in recent years, so the report would have needed to be creative to say the least," campaign group Frack Off UK said in a statement.