UK shale sector could face tighter regulations

Regulations have stalled the industry, but companies are trying to prove hydraulic fracturing's worth

Explorers in the UK’s nascent shale-gas sector face the prospect of tighter country-wide regulation, as well as a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Scotland, moves which will, at the very least, further delay the industry’s long-awaited take-off.  No shale-gas wells have been spudded in the UK since drilling by Cuadrilla Resources in Lancashire, northwest England, triggered small earth tremors in 2011. Since then, industry leaders Cuadrilla, iGas and Ineos have been expanding their acreage positions, carrying out preliminary studies and trying to persuade national and local authorities, and the public, that fracturing is safe and that efforts to exploit the UK’s shale-gas reserves would