Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Prime Minister on 11 September (HC9076), on what evidence they base the statement that "investment in shale could reach £33 billion and support 64,000 jobs in the oil, gas, construction, engineering and chemical sectors"; how many wells would be required to achieve such levels of investment and employment; and over what time period such levels would be achieved.

EY’s 2014 report, ‘Getting Ready for UK Shale Gas: Supply chain and skills requirements and opportunities’ identifies that over the period of 2016–32 c.£33bn of spend could be required to bring up to 4,000 wells into production. At peak this equates to around £3.3bn of spend and some 64,500 jobs (6,100 of which are direct roles).

The full report can be viewed at:

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Getting_ready_for_UK_shale_gas/$FILE/EY-Getting-ready-for-UK-shale-gas-April-2014.pdf