IN response to the claims by Professor Roy Thompson of Edinburgh University that onshore oil and gas exploitation is “barely economically feasible” in the UK (“Study warns North Sea oil and gas will end in 2027”, The Herald, September 20), I should like to make the following rejoinder.
An analysis of 25 shale gas systems in the United States isn’t a good basis for sweeping assertions about Scotland. Mr Thompson has suggested the total organic carbon (TOC), one of the determining factors in hydrocarbon viability, for Scottish shale is two per cent. If he had referred to the British Geological Survey 2014 report on Scottish shale gas he would have seen that Scottish deposits in the West Lothian Oil-Shale area have a significant number of deposits between seven and 30 per cent and that there are a significant net thicknesses of shale with TOC contents of more than two per cent TOC.
Where we as an industry and Mr Thompson agree is that the UK faces a future of growing gas imports. At present, 50 per cent of our gas comes from outside the UK – a significant turnaround from 17 years ago when we were a gas exporter. This is set to rise to 80 per cent in the next 17 years and has massive implications, both economically and environmentally.
Oil and gas history is littered with stories of “it’s not going to happen because … “ and we have often been surprised. The imperative to find out what is below our feet is what drives our industry.
Ken Cronin,
Chief Executive,
UK Onshore Oil and Gas,
40 Dukes Place, London.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here