This is old news. There are some 30 towns that now have to truck their water in because the water table was drained by farmers selling water to frackers. The same will inevitably happen here. Also the energy rate of return on shale oil is only 3 times inputs so it is pretty close to being uneconomic. There is also concern that fracking might not provide enough energy over the medium term and that the US will have to be a net energy importer within a decade. So this 40 years of energy independence that Cameron expects might evaporate before 2020.

which is a bit more accurate




Unlikely esp at the moment but we have far stricker enviromental controls




There are also studies that show that there is 40+ years reserves and as the technology improves so they will be able to extract a greater percentage / open new fields

There may be many years of reserves but the environmental costs might mean that you will have to lock away 80% of those to avoid catastrophic climate change. Also there has been a dramatic fall in the out put of US shale output after a year or two. The only way to maintain the supply is to drill continuously and that has been only possible because of the ultra low interest rates. This entire industry might disappear as soon as interest rates rise, unless oil and gas prices rise faster.

The issues here over regulation have to be considered because the last US president scrapped practically every regulation in regard to shale oil exploration. That could happen here.

As wells are used up so fresh drill will be needed - no different from oil wells

Also the drilling is being driven by gas prices not low interest rates

http://www.nationaljournal.com/new-energy-paradigm/who-s-really-cashing-in-on-the-fracking-boom-20131202

so even with higher interest rates they can make a good profit as they can increase the price up to the world market price

Yes the gas prices are crucial but so are low interest rates right now. It is a very capital intensive industry and if they had to pay 7% interest rates the calculations of how profitable they are become questionable. The problem of declining wells is like conventional wells but each pocket of oil are so much smaller than a conventional well.