A group of academics has written to the Guardian calling for the country to just get a move on with developing our shale resources.
It says: "As geoscientists and petroleum engineers from Britain's leading academic institutions, we call on all political and decision-makers at all levels to put aside their political differences and focus on the undeniable economic, environmental and national security benefits on offer to the UK from the responsible development of natural gas from Lancashire's shale."
The Guardian is predictably sniffy about these benefits pointing, as always, to claims that shale developments in the UK will not lead to price reductions because of the pipeline connections to the continent.
Shale has caused natural gas prices to plunge in America where it has been exploited in vast quantities triggering excitement about the potential to reduce Britain's soaring household heating bills.
But most industry experts warn the economics of extraction here remain unclear in a much-more crowded island and even if large quantities can be produced the volumes could largely be exported, unlike in the US where this is prevented.
Of course, this sale of gas to our European neighbours - if that is what is going to happen - is going to be mutually beneficial anyway, but I thought I might follow up on the suggestion that prices will not fall much in the UK in such a scenario.
I've been interested in the argument that export is "prevented" in the USA for some time. In his evidence to the House of Lords shale gas inquiry a few months ago, Chris Wright pointed out that the US has plenty of gas pipeline connections to its neighbours. These can be seen on the map below:
;)
So while, say, the Marcellus shale is far removed from any export facilities, the Eagle Ford play in Texas is right next to export facilities that can handle thousands of millions of cubic feet of gas exports per day - by my reckoning 2395 MMcf/day (that's 2.3 billion cubic feet per day). So the question is, are gas prices much higher in Texas than in other parts of the USA?
The answer, according to this site, is no. Graphing the data shows that Texas industrial natural gas prices (the heavy green line) are among the lowest in the country:
;)
I wondered if this must come down to the capacity of the pipeline as compared to the volumes of gas being produced, but according to this, the Eagle Ford is producing 3 Bcf/day, which doesn't seem very different to the export capacity of the pipeline. I'm therefore scratching my head slightly to explain why the prices are quite so low. Does anyone know? Are my units wrong somewhere? Or have I got something else wrong?
Bishop Hill
;)