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. The often knee-jerk response to concerns about potential future supply constraints is to leap to examine alternative supplies. I would counter this by starting with demand, however, as demanded by Britain's obligations to both the Paris Agreement and the Climate Change Act 2008. 

Gas is consumed for primarily two purposes in the UK. Firstly, for the production of electricity in gas turbine power stations. For all the publicity on wind and solar, gas is still the single biggest fuel for power production in the UK and, at least as matters stand now, the more intermittent renewables we install the more we will need the balancing abilities of gas power stations. Especially given that coal will be phased out - quite rightly - by 2025. So we need to stop wasting as much electricity as we do currently, and we need more long-term electricity storage from pumped hydro technology to allow us to better balance the intermittency of wind and solar.

The second major use of gas is for the production of heat, for warming water and air, including in most British homes. The main way to reduce gas use here is better insulation of roofs and walls, better windows; and to trim timings and levels on our heating controls.

In summary, if we waste less heat and electricity, then we can offset the need for more exotic methods of extraction like fracking.

2) Imported gas. This raises the hackles of many politicians, despite the fact that we import the majority of our crude oil ('petroleum') and manufactured goods from undemocratic nations such as China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Imports of gas are seen as worrisome because of one major gas producer: Russia, with whom Britain has strained relations. This is an overblown point, however. A senior analyst at WoodMac convinced me that the UK is neither dependent on Russia for gas imports and nor will it be in future. Whilst it's true that Russia is a major gas exporter, the vast majority of its gas is exported by pipeline, and the molecules flow primarily to major importers in Eastern and Central Europe, especially Germany. It's true that Russia is starting to export liquified natural gas (LNG) from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas field in Siberia, and has already sent a few cargoes to the UK, but it will be far more beneficial for them to supply the huge consumers in Asia.

As the production of North Sea gas - piped from domestic, Norwegian and Dutch producers - declines, we will benefit from rising exports from other countries. This includes via the pipelines of the new Southern Gas Corridor (starting at the Caspian Sea) and imports of LNG from Qatar, Algeria, Mozambique and Egypt/Israel. Also from the United States, a major net exporter of LNG, though note that the majority of this is from fracked sources. There is a danger that we avoid UK fracking by replying upon US fracking.

In summary, there are many import sources of natural gas, and despite there being finite supplies - the gas will run dry one day - we aren't being forced to frack in the UK countryside.

3) Biogenic resources

Natural Gas is methane, but not all methane comes from mineral (fossil fuel) sources. I'm not talking about the methane burped out by ruminants like cows and sheep - though this is a contributor to the greenhouse effect - but another source of gas: biomethane. This is produced by cleaning up ('upgrading') the biogas that is produced from the anaerobic digestion of biomass sources such as sewage, food waste, manure and energy crops. Because the plant matter in that biomass absorbed carbon dioxide (CO2) when it recently grew, the CO2 released when biomethane is consumed by boilers, turbines and hobs is low - and in some negative - carbon. Only 1% of the UK's gas grid content is  biomethane, though, and the rest is 'mineral' natural gas (I.e. fossil fuel). For this number to grow, the government would need to do more to improve feedstock availability, and relax regulations that are less favourable to decentralised gas production.

Overall, then, we have plenty of options, and we probably need a combined approach to avoid the need for fracking in the UK.