Despite recent action by the UK government to encourage unconventional natural gas extraction in England, a lasting domestic shale industry would need a dedicated supply chain and reliable support through changing political winds, according to prominent energy prognosticators.

“I would just be shocked if anything could happen,” RBN Energy LLC CEO Rusty Braziel said last week during a webinar. “I mean, let’s face it, the entire European community has been totally paranoid about hydraulic fracturing for years and years now.”

Noting that the UK government “all of a sudden” dropped the moratorium on fracturing amid tight natural gas supplies, Braziel predicted that political pressure to reinstate the ban would likely grow “as soon as things get back to something that...