Corin Taylor

This article is part of the Spinwatch Fracking Portal and project

Corin Taylor is a director at the oil and gas industry's UK Onshore Operators Group and a former head of comms for Centrica Energy.

Previously Taylor worked for several think tanks and trade associations; most notably as a former senior policy adviser at the Institute of Directors (IoD) and as research director of the right wing Taxpayers Alliance.

Authored IoD shale gas report sponsored by Cuadrilla

In May 2013 Taylor co-authored an Institute of Directors' report on the prospects for shale gas exploration in the UK.

The report, which was sponsored by fracking firm Cuadrilla Resources, was subsequently widely quoted in the press and by the UK government as 'independent'.

Entitled ‘Getting shale gas to work’, the report estimated that UK shale could attract £3.7 billion of investment a year and support up to 74,000 jobs in related sectors.

Taylor argued that,

'Shale gas could be a new North Sea for Britain, creating tens of thousands of jobs, supporting our manufacturers and reducing gas imports. Further exploration will be needed to assess the size of technically and commercially recoverable resources. At the same time, partnerships need to be established between industry, government and communities to ensure that development of this vital national resource benefits local people.”

Six months later appointed head of Centrica Energy comms

In October 2013 Taylor was appointed head of communications research at oil and gas production and power generation company Centrica Energy, which bought 25 per cent stake in the Bowland shale exploration licence of fracking firm Cuadrilla Resources that same year in a deal worth up to £160m.

Secondment to UKOOG

In 2014 Taylor was seconded to UKOOG from Centrica as a senior adviser UKOOG. He later was appointed a director of UKOOG.

Conference speaker

Taylor has spoken at:

• ShaleWorld UK conference in London in 2015 and the 2013 Shale Gas World UK Congress in Manchester.
• Institute of Economic Affairs, Lessons from the US: what is the best framework for exploiting shale gas in the UK?, 2014 Beesley Lecture on the potential of shale gas. Held 9 October 2014 at the IEA in Pall Mall. Spoke alongside Iain Murray, vice president for strategy, Competitive Enterprise Institute and Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla Resources

Affiliations

Taylor sits on the Social Return on Investment Steering Group at the Centre for Social Justice and is a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Centre. He was previously a member of the Economic Dependency Working Group at the Centre for Social Justice, research director at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, political secretary at the Tax Reform Commission and economics research officer at the think tank Reform. He has also written for the Centre for Policy Studies, Civitas and Policy Exchange think tanks on a freelance basis.

Taylor was a co-author of the Taxpayers Alliance report into benefit reform.

Taxpayers Alliance | Institute of Directors | Centre for Social Justice | Economic Policy Centre | Centre for Social Justice | Tax Reform Commission | Reform | Centre for Policy Studies | Civitas | Policy Exchange