Why fracking cannot solve Europe’s energy crisis

EUROPE IS GRIPPED by an energy crisis. Last year the EU imported 83% of its gas. Since then its main supplier, Russia (which provided around 40% of those imports) has slashed deliveries. Britain produces half of the gas it uses, but it is also feeling the squeeze. This leaves the continent with an urgent need either to use less gas or to find more of it elsewhere. Some—including Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss—think hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, could be a big part of the answer. This method of extracting oil and gas has been hugely successful in America. Could it help Europe ramp up its energy production too?

America’s example looks like a reason for optimism. Its oil-and-gas companies developed fracking in the 1940s as a means to improve the flow in wells. The process uses water, sand and thickening agents to blast gas out of porous rock formations, known as shale, deep underground. Over the past decade the widespread application of fracking has transformed America’s energy industry. Most of the 950bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas America produces each year comes from fracking.