- Bishop Hill blog

The UK Energy Research Centre - a proud member of the green blob, and a taxpayer funded one to boot - has launched a pair of reports into shale gas today, with a big bash to be held at the Royal Institution. As far as I can see the reports themselves have not been made public, and everybody is reporting the press release. This is usually a sure sign that something dicky is going on.

The headline is that shale gas development in the UK will not make a difference to prices. I assume this meanst that they are just channelling previous reports on the subject, but without the reports it's hard to say. I very much get the impression this is PR rather than research.

Update on Nov 12, 2014 by

Bishop Hill

I have now located the report. This bit (p.36) is interesting:

This project has not been about shale gas in the UK ... The bottom line is that the industry in the UK is still in its infancy and a 2-3 year exploration programme is required before we can even begin to answer key questions about flow rates and prospects for commercial development at scale.

There is a passing reference to the scale of likely shale gas development being insufficient to significantly reduce prices, but that is it. So unless I am mistaken, the headlines this morning are indeed nothing to do with research and everything to do with PR.