Energy Security And Drilling Rights

The March 2014 Ukraine crisis has once again focused European attention on the risks of excessive reliance on Russian gas supplies. Since 2003, European Union member states have gradually reduced their dependence both on Russian gas and on the Ukraine as a route for gas pipelines. Europe now imports just under 30% of its gas from Russia, compared with 45% in 2003. Improved infrastructure also offers alternative routes, such as the Baltic Nord Stream pipeline, and greater resilience. Nonetheless, a 10% increase in gas futures prices in immediate response to the Ukraine crisis must add to pressures on the UK and other governments to promote energy security as a major policy objective. While there are some significant alternative energy projects in distant prospect, such as the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project, for which planning consent was sought in February 2014, fossil fuels remain an essential element in the UK's energy mix.

The UK government faces a significant difficulty in that debates about the exploitation of onshore oil and gas reserves have been dominated by controversies and public concerns about the extraction of shale gas by means of hydraulic fracturing - or "fracking". Fracking involves drilling boreholes several kilometres deep and then pumping fluid at high pressure into rock strata to create narrow fractures from which gas can escape. British Geological Survey estimates, revised in June 2013, suggest that economically exploitable shale gas reserves within the UK might be sufficient to meet domestic demand for more than 40 years.

Public and media concern has focused on the possible risks of fracking, including contamination of ground water, environmental damage and possible seismic activity. Indeed, the UK government put a moratorium on fracking activities in 2011 following traces of seismic activity which were initially linked to fracking activities near Blackpool. The moratorium was lifted in December 2012 after geological reports suggested there was no such link. Nonetheless, campaigning environmental groups such as Greenpeace have asked for thousands of people to join in a "legal block" - essentially creating a patchwork of "no-go" areas across England intended to impede or to prevent large scale fracking. Although directed primarily at fracking, public campaigns tend not to distinguish clearly between fracking and conventional onshore drilling, with the result that protest and controversy tends to cluster around any...