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A report by the UK Task Force on Shale Gas has called for greater safety and transparency measures to be implemented before widespread fracking occurs across the country.

The UK fracking industry was left in total disarray yesterday after Lancashire County Council voted overwhelmingly to oppose fracking in the North West of the country.

There was more bad news for the fracking industry yesterday when New York State became the first US state to officially ban fracking.

Councillors in Lancashire in the North West of the UK yesterday unanimously refused one of two planning applications for fracking by the controversial company, Cuadrilla, but deferred a vote on the second application until Monday next week.

Last week, a new peer-reviewed study was published by the University of Texas at Arlington which found toxic chemicals in over two-thirds of drinking wells near fracking sites.

A year on from the start of one of the biggest oil price plunges in recent history, it seems there is going to be no let-up in the turbulence caused by the oil price fluctuations.

Growing community and political resistance means that the US shale revolution will not be replicated in Europe, one of the gas industry’s leading figures has warned.

The global oil price rose slightly this morning on the back of the news from the US government that US shale oil output is expected to fall for the first time in four years.

The wave of anti-fracking protests sweeping the globe have now spread as far as North Africa.

One of the great debates about fracking is whether it heralds a great new chapter in the age of oil or whether it is a small blip in the dying days of the fossil fuel era.