Fracking '˜can bring jobs and security to UK'

Stephen Bowler, chief executive of iGas, told The Yorkshire Post that their operations was pumping millions into the local economy and providing increased work for local engineering and infrastructure firms.

iGas currently has planning permission to for exploratory wells close to the village of Misson near Doncaster and another site in Nottinghamshire, with licences elsewhere in Yorkshire which have yet to progress.

Mr Bowler said the extraction of shale gas as an industry would help keep jobs in the UK and had the potential to massively reduce the amount of gas that Britain is importing over the next half a century.

His comments come as part of a Yorkshire Post special investigation into the fracking industry.

Mr Bowler, whose firm employs 150 people, said: “We spend £20m with our suppliers, principally local suppliers, who can be from Doncaster up to Leeds.

“At these sorts of oil prices we are making a profit so there is money going to the Exchequer and HMRC.

“Given the potential size of shale that is very small to what it could be. It is about growing a supply chain as an industry. We are looking at how we can use steel, probably from the UK, it is not just about the jobs that we would have directly but also many indirect benefits of people working in and around the areas, whether that is for restaurants and hotels.

“We use lots of things across our well services like pumps and fluids. It is a wide-range of services. Haulage companies. Oil tanks that move oil around, accommodation where people are staying.

And we operates 365 days a year.”

The UK is expected to be importing 75 per cent of its gas by 2030 and Mr Bowler said that the shale gas industry could play a significant part in helping to reduce this number.

He added: “If we can’t provide a secure supply of energy to people like the chemicals manufacturing industry than those jobs will go overseas, and you are already seeing that. And this is really the driver as we have seen there is a good price for gas and electricity in the UK as compared to other countries.

“Business in the States have taken off hugely once shale has come through, because it has driven down the cost of gas and the security of supply for those companies.”

Mr Bowler said the impact from environmental protestors into the firm’s operations was something “we live with day-to-day so it is something that is built into our plans”.

He added: “Obviously not easy but we think it is worth it. We know we have $50m revenues per annum and that could become significantly bigger.

“We have undertaken as a business to pay money to local communities. For any well that is fractured, we pay £100,000 to the local communities and that is the approach we will take, to go into the local communities and consult for those payments.”

An iGas spokesperson added there was the potential for a centre for excellence in the UK for onshore shale development in the UK in the same way that Aberdeen is for the oil industry.