Scotland

Scotland is threatened by all three fracking technologies: Shale Gas/Oil, Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). Exploration licences cover a relatively small area of land at present, but roughly a third of Scotland is being offered to fracking companies as part of the 14th onshore licensing round.

Initially the fracking threat in Scotland was mainly from two coal based extraction methods: Coal Bed Methane (CBM)and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). CBM exploration has so far centred around Airth in the Midland Valley and Canonbie on the border with England, while UCG licensing has been just offshore in the Firth of Forth from Kincardine down to Largo Bay, as well as the Solway Firth.

In 2014 the British Geological Survey (BGS) produced a report putting some numbers on the third fracking method threating the UK, shale oil and gas extraction. As with previous such reports these numbers are just for oil or gas-in-place, rather what can be actually extracted.

The bottom line for Scotland as it is elsewhere, is that fracking only produces small amounts of energy from massive numbers of wells with massive ecological costs. Communities across Scotland are waking up to this threat and a rapidly growing community resistance is fighting the industry every step of the way.