U.K. onshore oil and gas producer IGas Energy PLC (IGAS.LN) said Monday preliminary estimates indicate there may be more shale gas in their northwest England acreage than previously thought.
U.K.
onshore oil and gas producer IGas Energy PLC (IGAS.LN) said Monday preliminary
estimates indicate there may be more shale gas in their northwest
England
acreage than previously thought.
A more precise evaluation of what the company can actually recover from their
license area won't be available until the company drills some wells, which they
expect to do in the fourth quarter, and starts hydraulic fracturing, which they
are planning for next year, said IGas Chief Executive Andrew Austin.
"Once someone fracks some flow tests, at that point you have some
confidence around what is technically and economically recoverable," Mr.
Austin said in a telephone interview.
The
U.K.
government is hoping to repeat the shale gas boom that has helped boost the
U.S.
economy by lowering the cost of energy for businesses and consumers, benefits
that
Britain
's
Conservative-led coalition government believes could spur much-needed growth.
But while the
U.K.
is
believed to hold "abundant" shale gas reserves, according to the
British Geological Survey, reliable estimates have proved difficult in the
absence of commercial exploitation.
And although the government supports the exploitation of shale gas, public
opposition to the controversial process of fracking has grown following tremors
in 2011 near the location of the
U.K.
's
only fracking operation, conducted by Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. in the north of
England
.
Progress has been slow since the government's lifting of a moratorium on
fracking at the end of last year. In March, Cuadrilla said it was delaying its
plans to resume fracking, which it halted in 2011, until next year while it
conducts an environmental impact assessment for some exploration wells.
In a statement, IGas said that the volume of "gas initially in
place," in its licenses that cover an area of 300 square miles across
Lancashire
and
Cheshire
,
ranges from 15.1 trillion cubic feet to 172.3 tcf, with 102 tcf the most likely
level. The company had previously estimated a resource of around 10 tcf.
Gas in place refers to the amount of gas that exists underground, but not the
amount that can be technically or economically recovered, which is typically a
fraction of the total.
IGas raised the estimate after a study by the company's technical team that
included re-processing seismic data, results from a well that IGas had drilled
at Ince Marshes and data from around 20 other wells previously drilled by other
companies in and around the license area.
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