[2] In July 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron had claimed that, "fracking has real potential to drive energy bills down".
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) originally identified large areas of eastern and southern England as having the "best shale gas potential":The main area identified runs from just south of Middlesbrough in a crescent through East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and the Cotswolds to Somerset and Wiltshire.
[8] However the British Geological Survey report released in October 2014 said that there was little potential for shale gas in the Weald Basin as the field has not yet reached thermal maturation.
[9] In August 2010, Cuadrilla Resources started drilling Britain's first shale gas exploration well, the Preese-Hall-1 in the Bowland Basin.
The company hydraulically fractured the well in early 2011, but suspended the operation when it triggered two seismic events of magnitudes (ML) 2.3 and 1.5, the larger of which was felt by at least 23 people at the surface.
[10] Work on the well stopped in May 2011, and the government declared a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing that was sustained until December 2012, subject to additional controls to limit seismic risk.
[11][1][12] In September 2011, Cuadrilla announced a huge discovery of 200 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place under the Fylde Coast in Lancashire.
[25] In April 2014, Cuadrilla published news of their continuing consultation with residents shale gas exploration sites in the Fylde.
[27] A British Geological Survey report from May 2014 indicated that there was little potential for shale gas fracturing in the Weald Basin, south of London.
"[31] The Committee's chairperson, Tim Yeo, revised his personal opinion in 2012, however, and argued shale gas is a "game changer" that could "transform the UK's energy independence".
[39] In early 2012, Celtique Energie estimated that there might be as much as 14 Tcf of recoverable reserves potential in countryside south of Horsham, West Sussex.
[8] Preliminary estimates in 2011 suggested that there may be £70bn worth of shale gas in South Wales,[40] and 1.5bn bbl oil equivalent in Northern Ireland according to a report by PwC.
[47] BGS updated their estimate in a joint 2019 paper with the University of Nottingham, finding that recoverable gas from shale is "~10 times lower than previously thought" and "considerably below 10 years supply at the current consumption".
[50][51] In 2012, a joint report by the Royal Society and Royal Association of Engineers (RS/RAE), commissioned by the government to identify the problems and advise regulatory agencies, emphasised that regulation "must be fit for purpose" with a focus on maintaining "regulatory co-ordination and capacity" and "the way in which risks scale up should a future shale gas industry develop nationwide.
[53] In January 2014, an impact assessment by the European Commission concluded that existing legal and regulatory environments for shale gas exploration and development were insufficient, and recommended a new directive with specific requirements for high volume hydraulic fracturing to address: "environmental risks and impacts"; allay "public concerns", and; "enable investments".
[54] In August 2016, the Environment Agency followed up their 2013 draft consultation[55] with their final version on guidance for "flow testing and well stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing" for onshore operators in England.
In mitigation scenarios reaching about 450 ppm CO2eq concentrations by 2100, natural gas power generation without CCS acts as a bridge technology, with deployment increasing before peaking and falling to below current levels by 2050 and declining further in the second half of the century (robust evidence, high agreement)".
[74] Regulations in the UK call for total fluid and gas security meaning that in routine operations, no unburnt gases would be emitted.
"[77] Directional drilling allows a large hydrocarbon reservoir to be accessed using a single well pad, such as in Europe's biggest onshore oilfield, Wytch Farm.
[81] The magnitude 2.3M coseismic slip of 1 April 2011 caused casing deformation in "the lower section of the reservoir productive zone" of the Preese Hall 1 well.
[100] As of 2012, the Labour Party has been more reticent, but MPs have indicated they are receptive to shale gas development if environmental safeguards and an appropriate regulatory regime are in place.
[101] By contrast, UKIP has been enthusiastic about shale gas development, a stance that is partly derived from its hostility to wind farms.
It concludes that shale gas exploration and development should go ahead urgently, and that the regulatory regime was complex, and a hindrance to growth.
Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe said "Giving 6% of revenues to those living above Britain's shale gas developments means the rewards will be fairly shared by everyone."
Friends of the Earth said this was a "transparent attempt to bribe communities"[109] In February 2022 the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) ordered the "plugging and abandonment" of Britain's shale wells.
"Planning applications for the exploration, appraisal, or extraction of unconventional oil and gas which would utilise unconventional techniques (including hydraulic fracturing) must be referred to the Welsh Ministers, where local planning authorities are minded to approve them"[121] Quarterly "Wave" polling, originally commissioned by DECC (now BEIS),[122] has been monitoring public opinion on shale gas with its Energy and Climate Change Public Attitudes Tracker since Wave 8 (December 2013).
[123] The eighth wave showed 27% supported "extracting shale gas to generate the UK's heat and electricity", while 21% opposed.
A survey by YouGov for Friends of the Earth, published in August 2016,[127] found that 33% of people would support fracking in their local area if individual households received a payment of up to £10,000.
[citation needed] A January 2014 Guardian poll found that a majority support shale gas extraction, but by a somewhat narrower margin than previously.
[129] A poll conducted by Opinium/Observer in August 2013 showed that while men in the UK were evenly divided about fracking taking place in their area, women were strongly against it; the population as a whole preferred renewables such as wind farms.