Business chiefs’ association the CBI has called on the coalition to work with European partners to ensure the UK has access to US shale gas as the US relaxes its restrictions on exports of shale gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG). And the CBI has backed the UK government’s resistance to proposed new European Union regulation for the onshore unconventional gas industry which “risks delaying exploration, or creating an unworkable regime.”
CBI Director for Business Environment, Nicola Walker, said: “Shale gas now presents us with an opportunity to top up what we can get from the North Sea – and in the process enhance our energy security, create new jobs and drive growth.”
The CBI said the trade agreement currently under negotiation between the EU and the US – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – was “an excellent opportunity to ensure that barriers to US LNG exports are fully removed.” Until recently the US has restricted exports to countries outside its 20 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) group of nations. Recently however, the US granted LNG export licences for exports to four non-FTA nations.
In autumn the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that EU gas prices were three times greater than those in the US. The gap, according to the IEA, was set to remain for 20 years creating a “serious problem” for energy intensive industries in the UK and Europe who faced a 10 per cent decline in their international market share.