Sir Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent estimate his Department has made of the (a) volume and (b) proportion of liquefied natural gas imported from the United States derived from shale gas in each of the last three years; and whether emissions created by the (i) extraction, (ii) liquefaction and (iii) transportation to the UK of that gas exceed the emissions which would be created by extracting an equivalent volume of shale gas in the UK.  [37978]

[Due for Answer on 18 March]

ANSWER

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy (Michael Shanks): Data on gas import origins (including imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the US) is published each month in Energy Trends table 4.4. Further disaggregation of US LNG by method of extraction is not collected or available.

The UK has no active commercial shale gas production and hence no emissions data from production to allow a comparison with emissions from imported gas.