Public opinion is the biggest hurdle to the controversial fracking method of gas production being used in the UK, a business gathering heard in Aberdeen yesterday.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale rocks and release natural gas or other substances.
It is seen by many people in the energy industry as the solution to unlocking some of the estimated 32,500trillion cubic feet of unconventional gas – the collective term used to describe tight, shale and coalbed methane gas – around the world.
But pressure groups view the practice as environmentally damaging and possibly dangerous.
Speaking at a business breakfast marking the start of the two-day Unconventional Gas Conference, in Aberdeen, energy economist Ariel Bergmann said technological advances meant fracking was now a commercially viable option, but added that the method – already well established in North America – could become “the new GM” in Europe, in reference to the long-running debate over genetically modified foods.
The lecturer at Dundee University’s centre for energy, petroleum and mineral law and policy, said growing concern about fracking could be a “game-ender” for the practice on this side of the Atlantic.
UK company Cuadrilla Resources suspended shale-gas test drilling in June 2011 after two small earthquakes near Blackpool. France halted the practice amid fears it may pollute drinking water and there are similar concerns in America.
Other speakers at yesterday’s event included Serena Arif, managing director of Westhill-based water-management specialist Greenthread, who said public awareness about fracking was peaking and causing problems for the industry.
She added: “Public sentiment has a strong voice and that can make or break whether a project is going to be sanctioned or not.”
David Smallman, European representative for Louisiana’s department of economic development, said skill shortages in the southern US meant opportunities for north-east firms in fracking projects in the area.