Speakers at a conference about UK shale gas exploration have welcomed a report on the safety of the industry in Britain.
The report by Researching Fracking in Europe (ReFINE) highlighted figures which showed the UK has among the highest levels of well integrity and environmental protection in the world for onshore hydrocarbon wells.
The report found that there has been only one instance of recorded well integrity failure out of 143 wells in the UK since 2000.
Ken Cronin, chief executive of UK Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG), a speaker at a conference being held in Aberdeen, said: “ReFINE’s extensive study into the onshore oil and gas activity around the world should give great reassurance about the quality of operations and regulation in the UK onshore oil and gas industry.”
Lawrence Carter, a Greenpeace energy campaigner, said: “Government ministers and shale gas executives consistently argue that we don’t need to worry about fracking as we’ve been drilling onshore for years. But this report reveals they haven’t got a clue about the number of onshore well failures because the data doesn’t exist.
“Even if it did, fracking is a much more intensive, high pressure process than conventional oil and gas extraction and therefore poses higher risks.”