As highlighted in my earlier post Regulatory Roadmap: Onshore oil and gas exploration in the UK regulation and best practice regarding the environmental permitting regime for the onshore oil and gas industry, the United KIngdom Government is pushing ahead on its commitments to the shale gas industry.
A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has been produced by the Government, which sets out the potential economic and environmental effects of further oil and gas activity in Great Britain, including shale oil and gas production.
The assessment has been carried out in preparation for the launch of the next round of licenses being made available for onshore oil and gas exploration and production. Two scenarios were measured, a ‘high activity scenario’ and a ‘low activity scenario’. The ‘high activity scenario’ in the SEA assumes that a substantial amount of shale gas is produced during the 2020s, between 4.32 and 8.64 trillion cubic feet, which is up to three times current gas demands in the UK.
Further information can be obtained from the consultation documents can be found at http://bit.ly/JDm7sw , which runs until 28 March 2014.