SCOTLAND’S two newest gas fields — Laggan and Tormore – could produce enough gas to meet demand for the whole of Scotland, according to leading energy economist Professor Alex Russell.
That will depend on how Total runs its production as the price of gas is currently low, although not as depressed as oil.
The company will expect a return on such a massive investment and Russell says the fields will become profitable eventually, especially using the latest technology – remote-controlled robots that can operate in the harshest of environments with only a handful of human personnel.
Russell says we are seeing a sea change in the future production of oil and gas and urges us to “be bold” about the future.
Technology still has a way to go, but he says it is getting there and he predicts further reserves in otherwise inaccessible areas could be exploited through “safe fracking”.Now we know that fracking is seen by some as a dirty word, but it is different in this case.
This type of safe fracking would be carried out by remote robots in hostile environments hundreds of miles from any inhabited areas, and it would serve other purposes, aside from giving us access to difficult-to-reach oil and gas reserves.
It would show the rest of the world — again — that Scotland is an innovative nation and not afraid to take the lead. We should, as Russell suggests, embrace and develop the technology of the future and take a longer term view.
Being bold and exploiting what are thought to be huge oil and gas reserves that are just out of reach at the moment, could make Scotland a very rich country and a place that we, our children and grandchildren, would be more than happy to continue to call home.
Gas: Our future in our hands as new fields could supply all of Scotland
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