Earthquake risk from hydraulic fracturing is no worse than coal mining and can be mitigated, and government review what could see the ban on the industry is raised will be said.
Kwasi Kwarteng, Business Secretary, announced on Tuesday when he ordered new report to latest science around technology according to the government new sources of energy in commemoration of Russia invasion of Ukraine.
It’s ahead of Energy strategy to be presented on Thursday, and is expected to increase the likelihood that fracking could return to England.
Four-year study led by Newcastle University informs latest review. He came to the conclusion that now it’s better tools for predicting and reducing the risks of earthquakes from hydraulic fracturing.
Professor Richard Davies, a petroleum geologist and Provost at Newcastle University, told The Telegraph that fracking quakes are unlikely to become large. risk given the geology of Great Britain.
“We lived with them without much concern in the era of coal mining,” he said. “During coal mining, a huge amount of earthquakes were created in UK up until the 1980s and the miners’ strikes. In fact, Margaret Thatcher stopped the earthquakes, and they were never very strong. big. It is the same set of rocks.”
He added: ” risk of seismicity is high, but the impact is low.”
Fracking is a process of mixture injection of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into cracks between stones in to release the accumulated gas.
A moratorium was introduced on hydraulic fracturing in 2019 after magnitude 2.9 event while working on site run Cuadrilla on Preston New Road, Lancashire, and the subsequent inquiry which found that it wasn’t possible accurately predict a probability or magnitude of earthquakes.
Updated support for hydraulic fracturing
But support for the industry has revived, especially among some Tory supporters who claim it can provide energy security in commemoration of Russian war in Ukraine, which led to catastrophic price rises.
Mr. Kwarteng on On Tuesday, he said it was “absolutely right that we are studying everything possible domestic energy carriers”, given the energy crisis and the ongoing demand for gas on way to net zero.
But he said it would take ‘years of intelligence and development before commercial quantities of gas could be extracted” from hydraulic fracturing, and it would not lead cut prices in nearest future.
He asked the British Geological Survey to find out if there are new techniques that could reduce in risk and magnitude of seismic events in Great Britain.
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