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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