Fracking marvellous?
Is fracking really necessary in the UK? Fracking, where liquids and sand are forced into underground rock fissures to release gas, is a controversial practice, and in few places more than on the crowded British Isles. Ever since Caudrilla Resources started exploration for hydraulically-fractured natural gas around the beginning of this decade, many people have questioned whether fracking in the UK is necessary. It is certainly true that the UK's domestic production of natural gas, which is undertaken almost exclusively beneath the North Sea, is in terminal decline. This is also the same for our major import partners: Norway and Netherlands. It's true that there have been a handful of new discoveries in the North Sea in the past few years, but Dr Michael R Smith of Globalshift told me that production from these fields will be more than outstripped by output drops from existing wells. But what are the alternatives to fracking? 1) Reduce demand for gas . Th...