A new report has claimed that the UK is sitting on billions of barrels of oil which will require fracking to extract.
The report from the British Geological Society (BGS) explores the extent of oil reserves in the UK which could be accessed if the controversial method of fracking was allowed to go ahead.
BGS says that there is around 1329 trillion cubic feet of unexplored oil reserves in the UK with large amounts of this lying under Sussex, Kent and Surrey.
Fracking has been mooted in these areas before but has met popular resistance due to concern over the environmental impact of the process. There are concerns that it can lead to subsidence and the contamination of water systems.
These concerns persist despite a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering which claimed the process is safe if conducted responsibly and a report from the House of Lords this month which said encouraging fracking should be a “national priority”.
Government believes a fracking boom could help the UK’s economic recovery, bringing benefits to industry through reduced gas prices.
This has been the pattern in the US where the exploitation of shale gas has supported a surge in manufacturing productivity in recent years.
