http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6299291/Energy-crisis-is-postponed-as-new-gas-rescues-the-world.html
Reasons the picture may be too rosy.
This is a sales pitch to investors. (Houses only go up, they never go down.)
Fracking is not new. The techniques may be greatly improved. But we have seen this story before. Horizontal drilling will solve all our problems... lend us money... and after 20 years, Shell is forced to admit that horizontal drilling at most produces modest increases in yield and does get the oil out faster, but oops, we have to cut our reserve estimates by 20% and our stock crashed.
A new oil field is discovered. The geologists and engineers say it has between 1 billion and 100 billion barrels. In the end, the reality was 10 billion. Which figure does the owner of the field tell to the banks? The 100 billion barrel figure. Why? Because they can borrow more money at a lower interest rate. By the time the field goes into its terminal decline decades later, the original people who made the deals are long retired.
If the improved technique is really so good, why try to drastically expand the deployment? That would only depress the price.
Fracking can cause problems like cause small earthquakes (which, in most cases are just minor and not really a problem, except for the hysteria).
More serious is the potential to change the hydrology and contaminate wells. That could be a major fly in the ointment.
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