UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will lift the country’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in addition to pursuing other measures to accelerate development of domestic energy supplies.
"Far from being dependent on the global energy market and the actions of malign actors, we will make sure that the UK is a net energy exporter by 2040," she said during her opening speech on the energy policy debate in the House of Commons Sept. 8.
PM Truss said the government will accelerate “all sources of domestic energy, including North Sea oil and gas production,” and expects a new licensing round to launch, leading to “over 100 new licenses being awarded,” she said. In addition, she envisions the country speeding up deployment of “all clean and renewable technologies including hydrogen, solar, carbon capture and storage, and wind.”
Moratorium
Fracturing was banned in 2019 after a report by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) stated that it was not possible to accurately predict the likelihood and strength of earthquakes linked to fracturing operations (OGJ Online, Nov. 4, 2019). This concern was raised after a series of seismic tremors occurred at the Preston New Road (PNR) Lancashire shale exploration site operated by Cuadrilla Resources near Blackpool.
At the time, Andrea Leadsom, minister for business, energy, and industrial strategy, said that the moratorium was to remain in place until compelling new evidence showed that shale gas extraction is safe.
In February 2022, Cuadrilla was ordered under the ban to plug and abandon Britain’s first two horizontal shale wells at PNR by the OGA (OGJ Online Feb. 10, 2022).
Since lifting the ban, operators have voiced support for developing hydrocarbon resources through fracturing in the UK. Ineos, for example, has renewed an offer it made to the UK government in April to develop a fully functioning shale test site to demonstrate that the technology can be safe and secure in the UK.
