Written question asked by William Bain (Labour) on Monday, 10 January 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 12 January 2011. It was answered by Charles Hendry (Conservative) on Tuesday, 18 January 2011 on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Natural Gas: Exploration

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent assessment he has made of the potential effects on global warming of an expansion of the extraction of gas from shale; and what the policy of his Department is on such extraction.

Answer: Shale gas exploitation in other countries suggests that the impact on global warming from the extraction and use of this resource can sometimes be higher than that of conventional gas, because of increased drilling density and well site operations. This impact is expected to vary more between individual shale gas exploitation operations than it does between individual conventional gas fields, making it relatively location dependent.In the UK the first exploration well designed to evaluate shale gas potential is currently drilling west of Blackpool. However there is no current commercial production of shale gas within UK territory and no assessment of the potential impact on global warming of such operations has yet been made.Government support industry's endeavours in pursuing such energy sources so long as the tapping of such resources proves to be technically, economically, and environmentally viable.

Secondary information