The UK Government has said it will legislate to remove barriers to extract onshore oil and gas and deep geothermal exploration and speed up use of the hydraulic fracturing process.
The Government announced its intention in its response to the recent consultation by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on a proposal for underground access for the extraction of gas, oil or geothermal energy, published on 23 May 2014 which ran from 23 May to 15 August 2014.
DECC was consulting on a proposal designed to simplify the existing procedure for underground access when seeking to exploit oil, gas or geothermal resources. The Government response commented:
“We consider the existing procedures for gaining this underground access to be costly, time-consuming and disproportionate for these industries.”
A total of 40,647 respondents replied to the consultation - over 99% of all respondents opposed the proposal to legislate to provide underground access to gas, oil and geothermal below 300 metres.
The Government response states:
”We recognise that there is opposition to hydraulic fracturing and the use of fossil fuels in general. The consultation was not intended to address this wider issue, and focussed specifically on underground access. Mechanisms already exist whereby companies can obtain access rights for oil and gas. Responses simply stating an objection to hydraulic fracturing, use of fossil fuels or changes to trespass laws did not provide sufficient commentary to enable us to change or refine the proposals in the consultation. Many comments which supported renewable energy but did not support the proposals did not appear to recognise that the consultation proposals would encourage deep geothermal renewable energy projects.”
The Government will now put primary legislation before Parliament to implement the policy proposals set out in the consultation paper enabling oil and gas and geothermal companies to use underground land below 300m (1,000ft). Commenting on its intention, the Government said:
“By removing barriers to deep underground drilling access, we are speeding up oil and gas and deep geothermal energy exploration. …..Up to now, national oil and gas and geothermal exploration projects at depths around a mile or so beneath the ground could have been significantly delayed by one single landowner. “
The proposals apply to England, Wales and Scotland in respect to petroleum. The proposals on deep geothermal energy also cover England, Wales and Scotland (where in Scotland, deep geothermal energy is exploited for the sole, or main purpose of electricity generation). The use of deep geothermal energy for heat only purposes is devolved to the Scottish Government.
Click here to read the Government Response in full
Click here to read DECC’s Oil and Gas Impact Assessment
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