Liz Truss promises to push fracking in England to increase energy security
Britain's new PM vows to end three-year fracking ban and 'produce gas in as little as six months'
Gabriel Thomas (GT)May 9, 2025
Liz Truss has promised to lift Britain's three-year ban on fracking, claiming it "could be producing gas in as little as six months". In doing so, she contradicts the advice of her predecessor Boris Johnson that such a move would not solve the energy crisis.
The new Prime Minister's decision to move forward with fracking was part of a broader package of energy supply reforms announced on Thursday, aimed at reducing Britain's dependence on gas imports. These include more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, accelerating Britain's long-delayed nuclear program and more renewable energy.
Truss also launched a review of the UK's net-zero emissions target for 2050 to ensure the ambitious target is met without unduly burdening businesses or consumers. To reassure environmentalists, she has hired Chris Skidmore, a prominent Green Conservative MP, to lead the study.
However, the Prime Minister's claim that fracking could produce results within six months caught the attention of energy experts, who pointed out that it contradicts what new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said just six months ago.
"Even if we lifted the fracking moratorium tomorrow, it would take up to a decade to produce sufficient quantities - and at a high cost to communities and our precious landscape," Kwarteng wrote in the Daily Mail at the time.
Truss' decision to lift the moratorium is also a major political gamble, risking clashes with members of her own party and angering voters in many Tory constituencies.
The effective ban was imposed in 2019 after Australian-owned Cuadrilla, the only company that has fracked for shale gas in the UK, caused a 2.9-magnitude earthquake at a test well near Blackpool in Lancashire .
The incoming prime minister hedged her bets on the moratorium being lifted by insisting shale gas companies could apply for planning permits "if there is local support". The move will anger some of her own supporters, such as Alexander Stafford, MP for Rother Valley in northern England, who are known opponents, and risks alienating voters.
UKOOG, an industry body representing fracking companies, cites a British Geological Survey study from the middle of the last decade that pinpoints the UK's largest shale gas deposit under an area encompassing much of the Midlands and northern England. Known as the Bowland-Hodder formation, this formation encompasses numerous Tory constituencies, many of which were taken over by Labor in the 2019 election.
Another smaller formation studied by the OSG - the Weald Basin in south-east England - also includes many Tory constituencies.
Map of the UK showing the location of the study area Carboniferous Bowland-Hodder Shale and Jurassic Weald Basin Truss's announcement was welcomed by the shale industry. Francis Egan, Cuadrilla's chief executive, said the Prime Minister "made the right decision". He looks forward to working with [the government] to ensure this industry can deliver results as soon as possible.
But the question of whether the UK could have a viable shale gas industry is still surrounded by a great deal of uncertainty. Andy Samuel, head of the North Sea Transition Authority, the UK's oil and gas regulator, which also oversees fracking, told a parliamentary hearing this week that "nobody knows" how much shale gas may or may not be extracted economically until then more drilling has been completed and reserves have been "properly valued".
Bowland-Hodder's BGS survey suggests the area could contain 37,600 bcm of shale gas, which is about half of Britain's annual gas needs of 77 bcm. Truss said Thursday it would release an updated BGS report, which said "further drilling is required to determine data on shale gas occurrences and seismic impacts."
Johnson also questioned whether fracking could be done "effectively and cheaply" in Britain in one of his final speeches as Prime Minister. "I have to say I have a little doubt that it will prove to be a panacea," he said last week.
Scott Flavell, an energy partner at consultancy Sia Partners - who has extensive fracking experience as a former Queensland general manager for energy - said the process of developing shale formations is much less time-consuming than drilling offshore. But he added that the government would need to override a slew of local planning permits to allow the gas to flow in just six months.
There are other hurdles. In 2019, even before the moratorium was imposed, Cuadrilla had to stop drilling if it caused earthquakes greater than 0.5 on the Richter scale. Fracking companies have long warned that these rules - known as the traffic light system - would make commercial fracking for shale gas impossible in the UK.
"It's not like conventional gas, where you have to drill thousands of wells to get an acceptable amount of gas," Flavell said. "Given the size of the UK - it's a small country with a large population - they will never be able to drill the number of wells they need to have a significant impact on supply or price."
Many of the other ways Truss proposed to improve the resilience of Britain's energy supply were already part of government policy under Johnson's administration.
The Prime Minister confirmed that the government will launch a new round of oil and gas licenses as early as next week - the first since 2019-20 - which is expected to result in more than 100 new licences.
An "energy price guarantee" will cap the price utilities can charge their customers for a unit of gas, meaning a typical household will pay no more than £2,500 a year on energy bills.
A six-month program for companies, charities and public employers, such as B. Schools, will be introduced. Under this program, the state will pay utilities the difference between the new cap and what the utilities would otherwise charge their customers.
After six months, the government will move from the business rule to a more targeted plan for vulnerable industries.
Fracking will be given the green light and more North Sea licenses will be issued to speed up domestic energy production.
The package is estimated at £150 billion, but the final cost will depend on gas market developments. The ministers stress that the program will reduce inflation and save billions on government bond repayments.
UK oil and gas production in the North Sea peaked in 1999-2000 and has since declined over the long term - down 17 per cent last year to about 28 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million tonnes of oil, according to trade body OEUK.
The North Sea Transitional Authority has promised in the next round to give priority to licenses that contain deposits that have already been discovered and could be in production in less than a year. However, according to the NSTA, it takes an average of five years for a license to be issued.
Earlier this week, the Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government, and the National Infrastructure Commission jointly wrote to Truss, emphasizing that any government action to deal with the energy crisis should also include promoting efficiency measures to lower bills. "The UK cannot deal with this crisis by increasing its natural gas production alone," the letter reads.
