Kwasi Kwarteng, the Minister of Business, announced on Tuesday that he had commissioned a new report on the latest technology in technology, as the government examines new energy sources in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It comes ahead of the Energy Strategy, which will be unveiled on Thursday, and is expected to raise the prospect that fracking could return to England. A four-year study led by the University of Newcastle will update the latest review. He concluded that there are now better tools for predicting and mitigating earthquake hazards than fracking. Professor Richard Davis, an oil geologist and deputy chancellor at the University of Newcastle, told The Telegraph that earthquakes caused by fracking were unlikely to pose a significant risk, given the UK’s geology. “We lived with them without much concern during the coal mining season,” he said. “During coal production, huge numbers of earthquakes were created in the United Kingdom until the 1980s and the coal mines went on strike. Essentially Margaret Thatcher stopped earthquakes and they were never very big. It’s the same set of rocks. “ He added: “The risk of seismicity is high, but the impact is low.” Fracking is the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into cracks between rocks in order to release trapped gas. A moratorium on fracking was imposed in 2019 following a 2.9 magnitude incident during operations at a Cuadrilla-based site in Preston New Road, Lancashire, and a subsequent investigation found that the possibility could not be accurately predicted. or the magnitude of earthquakes.
Updated support for fracking
However, support for the industry has rekindled, especially among some Tory supporters who say it could provide energy security in the aftermath of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led to catastrophic price increases. Mr Kwarteng said on Tuesday that it was “absolutely right to explore all possible domestic energy sources”, given the energy crisis and the continuing demand for gas on the way to zero. However, he said it would take “years of exploration and development to be able to produce commercial quantities of gas” from fracking and would not lead to lower prices in the near future. He asked the British Geological Survey to investigate whether there are new techniques that could reduce the risk and magnitude of seismic events in the UK.
