DEFENDING its ‘visualisation’ of projected fracking operations contained in two petroleum exploration and development licence applications (Echo, Jan 16), a spokesman for UKOOG, the representative body for the UK onshore oil and gas industry, said: “This is a scientifically produced accurate representation of what people in the British countryside can expect on best available plans and experiences in other jurisdictions.”
Insofar as such gobbledygook is comprehensible, it would seem that UKOOG admits to presenting the best possible scenario, far from the (for once) more realistic forecasts of the industry itself which predicts a well density typically at least three times higher than that “visualised”, and ignores the infrastructure necessary to exploit shale reserves.
Referring to criticism of the visualisation’s soundtrack, UKOOG responded that it was limited to what it could get for free. Strange for an industry so flush with resources, and interesting that the effect should be to lull people with a false sense of security.
David Cragg-James, York
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