* Britain awards total of 159 new onshore oil, gas licences
* IGas, Egdon Resources, Cuadrilla among licence winners
* INEOS says is now UK's largest shale gas developer byacreage (Updates throughout)
By Karolin Schaps
LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Britain awarded another 132 newonshore oil and gas exploration licences on Thursday, givingdevelopers access to more land for shale gas fracking for thefirst time in seven years.
Britain is estimated to have substantial amounts of gastrapped in underground shale rocks and Prime Minister DavidCameron has pledged to go "all out" to extract these reserves,to help offset declining North Sea oil and gas output, despiteopposition from environmental campaigners.
Many other European countries, including France and Germany,have banned the use of shale gas hydraulic fracturing, orfracking, due to environmental concerns.
The latest awards conclude Britain's first onshore oil andgas licensing round in seven years. Overall, it awarded 159licences and 75 percent of the blocks covered were related toshale gas or oil, the government said.
Companies which obtained new licences include establishedshale gas companies IGas, Egdon Resources,Cuadrilla Resources and INEOS. The latter won 21 new licenceswhich it said now made it Britain's biggest shale gas byacreage.
"We currently import around half of our gas needs, but by2030 that could be as high as 75 percent," said British EnergyMinister Andrea Leadsome in a written statement to parliament.
"That's why we're encouraging investment in our shale gasexploration so we can add new sources of home-grown supply toour real diversity of imports."
Britain on Thursday also said it will cut subsidies torenewable energy projects less than a week after a globalclimate change agreement was struck to wipe out carbon emissionsthis century.
So far, shale gas fracking in its modern form has only takenplace at one site in northeastern England. Local planningapprovals for new projects have been slow because of concerns byresidents about environmental, noise and visual impact.
"The real challenge companies face is obtaining planningpermission from local planning authorities, as the refusal ofCuadrilla's applications in June demonstrated," said CatherineHoward, a planning partner law firm Herbert Smith Freehills.
Cuadrilla was refused planning permission for two shale gasprojects earlier this year but the government has sinceannounced it would use new powers to make its own decision onthe matter.
On Wednesday, lawmakers voted in favour of the use offracking to extract shale gas under national parks, weakening adecision against fracking in national parks made earlier thisyear and giving shale gas explorers access to more resources. (Additional reporting by Nina Chestney and William James;editing by Jason Neely and William Hardy)