Bidding begins for controversial fracking licenses

This is the first time in six years that companies were given opportunity to secure license to extract shale gas.

12:15 28 July 2014

July 28th marks the start of the bidding process for licenses to extract shale gas using fracking. This is the first time in six years that companies have been given the opportunity to begin test drilling. About half of the UK’s land is open for exploration but firms will require planning permissions and environmental permits in order to get started.

During the announcement of the so-called 14th onshore licensing round, Business and Energy Minister Matthew Hancock said: "Unlocking shale gas in Britain has the potential to provide us with greater energy security, jobs and growth."

"We must act carefully, minimising risks, to explore how much of our large resource can be recovered to give the UK a new home-grown source of energy."

Robert Gatliff, Science Editor at the British Geological Survey, gave a clear picture of what the public can expect with the whole process:

"The first stage, you'd review all the data you've got. Then you'd want to drill one or two exploration holes and then take samples of the shale and see exactly what the content is and see which have got the most in and which bits are likely to fracture best to get the most oil out."

He added that although it is believed that the country has between 820 and 2,000 trillion cubic feet, we’ll be lucky if we’ll get more than 5per cent of that number.

He explained: "there's no way we'd get all that out".

"If you look at what happens in the US, and that's where you've got to look because that's where they've drilled thousands of holes, they're not getting more than 5%."

"In Britain we're so crowded and we've got these beautiful areas, that reduces the amount we can get out as well."