LONDON, Jan 13: British Prime Minister David Cameron today promised tax breaks worth millions of pounds to local councils who encourage shale gas development, declaring the country was going “all out for shale”.
Cameron announced that local authorities in England will collect all of the tax collected from shale gas sites — double the current 50 per cent figure.
The government calculates that this could be worth up to USD 2.8 million a year for a typical site.
“We’re going all out for shale,” Cameron said in a statement released by his Downing Street office.
“It will mean more jobs and opportunities for people, and economic security for our country.”
The Government hopes the move will ensure that local communities benefit more from the exploitation of shale gas resources in their area.
The industry last year announced plans for local communities to receive 100,000 British Pound when a test well is “fracked” — and a further 1 per cent of revenues if shale gas is discovered.
Fracking involves the blasting open of deep fissures using high pressure water jets in order to collect previously unreachable sources of gas.
Business minister Michael Fallon earlier said Britain had to “embrace the extraordinary opportunities offered by shale gas”, despite protests from environmentalists about the possible contamination of groundwater.
“In the Seventies, North Sea oil helped salvage our economy from crippling stagnation,” he wrote in the Sun yesterday.
“We have a similar chance to create tens of thousands of jobs and energy security.
“A mile and more beneath us lies deposits of gas-bearing shale rock with the potential to guarantee energy supplies in an increasingly uncertain and competitive world,” he added.
French energy giant Total is later today set to reveal plans for fracking exploration in Britain when it takes a share in a licence in the Midlands, the Financial Times reported.
Friends of the Earth senior campaigner Jane Thomas said it was “ironic that a French-owned company is seeking to drill the UK for shale gas when it’s banned from fracking in France due to environmental concerns”. (AGENCIES)

SAN JUAN (PUERTO RICO), Jan 13: A strong earthquake out to sea has shaken Puerto Rico’s northern coast, causing minor damage in some places.
Dozens of people reported fallen items in their home and feeling buildings sway in the capital of San Juan, about 96 kilometers from the quake’s epicenter.
The US Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and struck just after midnight about 56 kilometers north of Hatillo. It said the quake occurred 28 kilometers deep.
Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency said there was no tsunami warning. (AGENCIES)

BANGKOK, Jan 13: Anti-Government protesters today began blocking key intersections across the congested Thai capital in their bid to “shutdown” the city and force embattled Premier Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.
One protester was shot and injured while he was guarding a barrier at the Chaeng Wattana rally site here late last night by an unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle, police said.
The opposition Democrat party, which has not won polls in two decades, has been venting its ire against the Yingluck Government for two months now holding protest marches here.
The protesters want Yingluck and her brother former premier Thaksin Shinawatra out of Thai politics. Thaksin was overthrown in a coup in 2006 and is in self-exile in Dubai.
Yingluck has called for snap polls on February 2 following weeks of opposition protests. But the opposition has said it will boycott the polls. Today is their first massive protest aimed at shutting down the city.
The Democrats have said they will boycott the elections.
Ruling Pheu Thai Party leader and caretaker Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan said the government was ready to consider the Election Commission (EC) proposal that the polls be postponed, but said the agency should state why it believed the election would go smoothly if it was held on May 4.
“Has the EC gone to soothsayers, such as ET?” Charupong said in a reference to E Thi, Myanmar’s most famous fortune- teller.
Charupong said that legally, the election could not be postponed beyond February 6, as the election law stated it must be held within 60 days of a House dissolution.
The only exceptions are in cases of disasters or riots, and only in the affected areas, not nationwide. “If we postpone because of fears that there would be violence, it would set a bad precedent for future elections,” he said.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit yesterday submitted a letter to the EC to show the party’s stance that the poll must be held on February 2, since a budget of over 3.8 billion baht has been allocated for the agency to do this.
The protesters want an appointed “people’s council” to run the country before general elections are held.
Thaksin, a billionaire telecoms tycoon-turned-politician, lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, and has a large electoral support base in northern and north eastern Thailand.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former Democrat Party MP, expects a large turnout for the latest demonstration.
Several schools and local universities are closed.
The Indian embassy here has advised its nationals to be vigilant and stay away from areas where protests are being held.
Eight people, including a policeman, have been killed and dozens injured in street violence since the protests began in late October. (AGENCIES)