Britain is sitting on 50 years worth of shale gas that could boost UK supply

Industrialist Sir Jim Rotcliffe will hand over the official study to show that Britain is sitting on 50 years worth of shale gas.

The billionaire founder of the chemical group Inos is lobbying for a resumption of fracking and believes that unused reserves could boost the country’s internal energy supply.

Ineos will submit survey data on shale gas to a framing review that is reconsidering new drilling projects.

The study shows that parts of Britain are as rich in shale gas as the United States, where fracking has helped keep the country from rising global energy prices.

Sir Jim believes that fracking has been eradicated by an ‘ignorant minority’ of opponents who have thwarted the UK’s power revolution.

He told the Sunday Telegraph that politicians had “completely ignored science” and were influenced by public perceptions of the “so-called dangers” of fracking.

Fracturing involves injecting liquids into the rock at high pressure to hold open cracks and release oil or gas.

But it has been blamed for the quake and the government suspended the practice in 2019 when studies showed that it was difficult to predict the probability or magnitude of a fracking-related earthquake.

Inios spent £ 250 million on the British fracking project before the ban, a fund Sir Jim said was ‘destroyed by the shaking of the political switch’.

The tycoon believes the sanctions have left the country facing a global energy crisis.

Business Secretary Quasi Quarteng acknowledged this month that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had strengthened the case for fracking and asked the British Geological Survey for a report on the science of fracking.

It is expected that Ineos will transfer its data to BGS along with other fracking operators. A report on its results is expected in late June.

Stephen Bowler, chief executive of the framing company iGas, said framing was “a choice for the country”, adding: “The conflict here is not really about science, but about politics.”