OIL and gas experts are to debate how Scotland could benefit from a shale gas revolution at a landmark conference.
The Fracking Question conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday is said to be the first policy event to seriously investigate the potential benefits fracking can offer to Scotland and the UK.
Following an announcement by Ineos that it will invest £120 million at its Grangemouth plant to process liquefied ethane imported from US fracking operations, a specialist panel will examine if shale oil and gas can be a game-changer for UK energy security and pricing.
Fracking is credited with transforming the US energy industry, slashing wholesale and consumer gas prices and creating up to one million new jobs.
A recent report estimated that over the next 12 years, the fledgling shale gas industry could generate up to £5 billion in benefits for Scotland and could be worth between £30bn to £50bn to the UK GDP.
Potentially huge fracking gas reserves are believed to be located throughout Central Scotland and are thought to be spread as far as Aberdeen and Dumfries and Galloway.
Stuart Paton, former chief executive at Dana Petroleum and an expert in unconventional oil and gas, will cite the transformational experience of the US, which is set to become a net exporter of gas.
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 hereComments are closed on this article