The Institute of Directors has issued a report on shale gas, saying that it could create tens of thousands of jobs in areas that desperately need them.
Shale gas development could create tens of thousands of jobs, reduce imports, generate significant tax revenue and support British manufacturing. The Institute of Directors’ comprehensive new report, Getting shale gas working, studies the lessons of previous energy developments, investigates the economic impacts of potential shale gas production at scale, and sets out the practical steps for both government and industry to overcome the key barriers.
I was particularly struck by the section on an oil and gas field in Dorset called Wytch Farm - the largest onshore field in Western Europe. This has been operated since the 1970s in the most environmentally sensitive site imaginable - Poole Harbour - and has achieved horizontal drilling distances of 10km - a world record.
One of the principal arguments put forward by shale gas's opponents - Parliamentarians of various shades, people with interests in conventional gas, environmentalists and so on - is that because the UK is so much more densely populated that the USA, shale development will be impossible on the same scale. This case doesn't seem to hold water if one can drill laterals of 10km length. I'm interested to know therefore if the extraordinary distances achieved at Wytch Farm could be replicated in the shales of the South-East or Lancashire or whether they have only been possible because of the geology of that particular corner of Dorset.