Fracking could create 'thousands' of engineering jobs
The exploitation of UK shale gas resources has the potential to create thousands of high-skilled engineering jobs over the next decade, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
In a policy statement circulated to parliamentarians, the institution said that 4,200 jobs per year could be created over a ten-year drill programme, with 1,300 created annually in Lancashire alone. It also suggested that the engineering skills could then be sold abroad, just as the oil and gas experience built up in North Sea oilfields is now being sold across the world.
"UK shale gas could make a helpful contribution to the UK's energy security for the next two centuries, but it is not the silver bullet many claim it is," said the IMechE's head of energy and environment, Dr Tim Fox (pictured). "It is unlikely to have a major impact on energy prices and the possibility that the UK might ever achieve self-sufficiency in gas is remote."
Dr Fox went on to suggest that a general over-reliance on gas would render the UK a hostage to volatile energy market, with or without UK shale gas. "It is vital that the government continues to develop a balanced energy policy, incorporating renewables, nuclear and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage," he concluded.
